IN THE SKY (6)

When Karen heard Luca accidentally flipping a bottle, she let go of Eirene's hair and turned towards the origin of the sound. The way she moved her body, specifically at the joints, was something out of a horror movie.

The force made the actress's jaw hit hard on the floor, and get a nice view of that skinny ankle right next to her face. Without sparing a second, she bit on it, piercing the skin.

"UGGHHHHH!" The woman screamed and immediately kicked the actress to free herself from the alligator bite.

But Eirene din't budge and continued to dig her teeth into the tissues. But one heavy hit on the head with a rifle butt stopped her from biting a chunk off her leg. "YOU B*TCH!"

The actress smirked in reply. Even in the dark, her mouth and lips, stained red, shone. She was sure she looked like a cannibal as the hijacker froze when they made eye contact. Or was she a Medusa?

The woman pointed as her voice trembled. "Y-you!"

Karen brought down the rifle butt once again filled with rage on Eirene. And without wasting a moment, she pointed the weapon and forced the bleeding actress out of the cabin, only to meet a group of young women waiting for the bathroom with tied hands with Issac right behind them.

As soon as they saw Eirene emerge from the shadows, they screamed as if to call hell and awaken the sleeping demons.

The cabin attendant slapped one of the girls. A teenager, weeping, seeing the state of the actress. "Shut up! SHUT UP!"

But the screams didn't falter.

But before she could use a weapon against any of them, Eirene told them, "I'm fine. Stay calm."

The young teenager had tears streaming down her face and her nose running. "Are you?"

"Yes." She replied and gave a pat on the girl's shoulder with her tied hands. "It's alright."

Karen didn't even bat an eye towards the interaction and glared at Issac. "You little piece of sh*t. You couldn't even keep them right. Didn't I tell you to not allow them to get up from their seats?"

The man nervously looked down at his gun and answered timidly, "But they said they couldn't hold it in..."

"It doesn't matter." The woman shouted and slapped the side of his head not so lightly. "I don't want to see any of them up again. Understood?"

"Yes..."

The cabin attendant huffed and pointed her rifle at the actress. "Move it."

With that, Eirene turned around but not before she made eye contact with the young man standing, looking at her with guilt and worry.

-----

Once again, Eirene was thrown back into the Tartarus, also known as crew's resting cabin, after she was done negotiating with the police on the demands.

Like a newborn deer, the actress wobbled and hopped back to one of the beds.

She had degraded from a cannibal to a serial killer with them allowing her to gaggle Karen's blood out of her mouth afterwards the commotion the other passengers were making.

Once she was on the bed and took a few breaths to calm herself from the encounter with her r*pist, she heard steady breathing from the back of the room. She didn't know if the young pilot was pretending or really asleep, but it didn't matter to her.

She wasn't in her right mind to discuss anything. And she needed time to organise her mind.

Five minutes didn't even pass by when she heard a hesitant knock on the door. In the quietness, the soft knocks were louder than a series of bombs.

Of course, Eirene didn't say anything. She didn't know who was behind that door and their intentions. She wasn't going to risk it in case it was a trick by the three b*tches (Karen, Benjamin or the man in black).

Three more knocks came when she didn't answer, but this time, the person behind the door entered the room.

"...Ms Queen?" The voice called out weakly but desperately. "Ms Queen, are you here?"

Eirene silently released the air stuck in her lungs when she realised the person was Issac, the cabin attendant. "I'm right here."

The young man walked towards the source of the voice.

"What brings you here, Issac? Perhaps a news?" The woman asked, which stopped the young man from approaching her.

The cabin attendant didn't answer.

She continued, "If you have come to assist me with injuries, that is not needed."

As expected, another wave of silence followed. Eirene knew what she was doing, and she was just a push away from winning Issac.

"Actually," When she said that, she saw the shadow in front of her raise his head eagerly. It was as if he was impatient with being told what to do. "I couldn't get enough rest the last time I was here, and I'd like to take it now. Will you mind leaving me alone or you'll have issues with that?"

"...No..."

"Then-"

"I didn't know it was going to turn out this way!..." The man's voice was shaking. Hiccups followed soon. " I'm sorry..."

The shadow fell to his knees, but Eirene didn't flinch and waited without saying anything.

The scene looked like a knight finding his kidnapped queen and being told it was all orchestrated by his beloved brother. The queen had her sereneness while the knight shed tears at her tied feet. If the clothes and the location were different, one could confuse if what they were witnessing was straight from a movie.

"Look up, Issac." She said quietly after a good five minutes.

"I-I can't..." He answered with crying evident. "I ruined your life because I, I," Issac made the nastiest hiccup possible and continued to cry while covering his tear-smeared face.

Maybe she bullied the boy a little too much. The woman felt a tinge of guilt in her heart but times were tough, and there was no room for soft-hearted here.

"Issac." She called out, but most probably, he couldn't hear it from the sounds he was making. "Issac, please look up. I want you to look up."

The young man complied but slowly. Tears were still flowing down his round, baby-fat cheek, and he was weeping and hiccuping at the same time.

He sounded pitiful. He looked pitiful.

Eirene leaned into the boy and watched as his eyes widened at her words. "You like him, don't you?"

More tears spilt out the young man's round eyes like someone had opened the tap. His lips quivered as he buried his head back into his hands and nodded shamefully and uncontrollably, all the while not making a single sound or scream.

"When you love somebody deeply, you sometimes lose the sense of what's good and bad. I know that feeling." Calmly, she stood up from the bed and knelt beside the young man. "I get it. I understand what you are going through."

The man leaned into the woman's shoulder limply.

"I've been there."

She slowly brought up her tied hands and patted his head. The man sobbed uncontrollably.

The scene had now changed into a sister comforting her young brother after the death of his best friend.

The cabin was silent apart from Issac's miserable sobs. And while he cried, she murmured, it was okay, alright, I get you, I understand you as she patted his shoulder and head.

"Wha-what should I, do-do?" The young man asked with a stutter. "I have done something, something so horrible. I don't know, I don't know how to face my parents, I don't know how you can forgive me. I'm so sorry! I-I, shouldn't have done this. I could have stopped him, but I didn't because I was a coward... What have I done? How did I even get myself into this? I can't. I can't..."

"It's alright. I know you know what you've done is wrong and you are regretting it. I forgive you." She said, which made him pour his tears even more.

Issac pulled away from the woman and looked at her, "I don't know what to do... Help me..." He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook them.

Now it looked like a nurse and a prisoner receiving news about his family's death.

After a while, he stopped and became limp, in a daze.

Eirene removed his hands from her shoulders and held them in her cold hands, "The only way I can help you is you saving me, us, and everyone on this plane."

"I can save you?" He asked, gradually coming back to reality.

"Not only me but everyone, even Benjamin and Karen."

The young cabin attendant stared into the actress's eyes with his hazel eyes. "How can I do that?"

----

"We should release some of the hostages," said Issac after a big breath.

The female cabin attendant standing next to her lover piloting the aeroplane turned to the young man with annoyance and irritation. "What makes you think we'd listen to you?"

Her eyebrow was raised, and her index finger rested on the trigger of the brown rifle that was longer than her torso.

The young man squirmed under the gaze but bravely answered, "...the fuel. More weight means more fuel needs to be used."

Karen sighed, "You don't know anythin-"

"His right." Benjamin cut off the woman and puffed out a cloud of smoke from the cigar. "We were supposed to have two hundred passengers and fly for twenty hours. But you let one hundred more people board, and the calculations aren't matching."

The female cabin attendant clicked her tongue and glared at the younger man for the suggestion. "We weren't informed that that b*tch had increased the number of bodyguards and some had already boarded by the time I realised. It's not my fault." She crossed her arms defensively.

"Anyway, we should make a landing somewhere flat and let out some." The man replied as he pulled out a map.

----

A young female cabin attendant unnoticeably sneaked into the resting cabin for crews. She and many others were boarding off the plane as Karen ordered when Issac came and whispered her to go the cabin.

Among everyone, she knew Issac the best. After all, she was the one who brought him into the world of aeroplanes. So from the tone of his voice and the expressions he made, she knew he was back.

With her hands tied with a zip tie and being new to the plane, she bumped into something warm and tall. She was about to scream when a hand covered her mouth, and the small light from an electric watch lit up between them.

"Luca..." She murmured when she saw the face of her colleague alive and well.

"Yvonne, can you help us?" He asked as the actress showed up next to him.

"Anything."

"The you'll have to hide for now? Can you do that?"

Yvonne nodded and walked up to the farthest bed and hid under it.

Just as Luca pulled over the bed sheets to cover her up, she heard the sound of heels and something stuttering. In a few seconds ,the sound went away.

She knew the young pilot was still there with her because of the warmth and breathing, but he was also hiding.

"What happened?" She asked as her body unmanageably shook.

"...They took Ms Queen away..."