The Hunters of Death - Chapter Five



Leigh's POV

Location: Somewhere Up In The Air

As I covered my eyes, I prayed to the gods to have mercy on my soul. Of course, I'm wrong. No god can help me in my situation now.

"This cannot be happening," I said.

"Aw, c'mon, Leigh. A little flight won't hurt us!" Shannon persuaded, "Plus, you owe us after that fiesco with the sharks. We were bait!"

"No," I tried so hard to say no but all of them were on puppy-dog eyes mode which was both annoying, irresistable and frankly disturbing.

"Please," Brown pleaded. I knew I couldn't stand much of their cute puppy dog eyes much longer so I gave a sigh. "Alright, fine."

They all rejoiced loudly while I regret what I just did.

"But just this once. We can't afford more of these flights any longer," I lied.

"Don't be kidding, Leigh. We know there's a lot of money left," Jodi said.

"I'll go buy the tickets," I said half-heartedly. I walked to the ticket counter and bought us tickets.

We're now flying across the US to our destination. I hate flying. Seriously, I hate flying. I've never tried flying in my entire life because of this little "fear" I've developed.

At least I got the aisle seat of the "luxurious" first class. I got Zoe beside me, who was just listening to her tunes and not minding anything. I looked at the others and they were doing just fine while I wasn't. I checked my reflection on my phone -secretly owning one- and I looked really pale.

"Would you like a drink, Miss?" a lady with a really pretty asked.

I turned and saw that it was a stewardess who looked really really pretty like I expected.

It took me a few seconds to realize that she was talking to me.

"Huh what? Oh, oh sure!" I said.

"Would you like the first class mumbo jumbo shake? It eases the fear you are having," she suggested.

"Whatever you have would be great," I said, I read her nametag, "Miss.... Jonathan?"

"It is Jona Than."

"Oh, cool name."

She nodded. We looked at each other for a while.

Awkward silence....

"So," I broke the silence, "How about that shake? That mumbo jumbo shake?"

"Very good, Ms. Newton of Washington, D.C.. A very good choice, indeed!" She mixed some juices and poured it in a cocktail glass and gave it to me. I took a sip, and wow. It was really good!

"Thanks," I said.

She smiled and nodded and then left me with a refreshingly tasty drink.

"Mmm... Mangoes!" I giggled, "It's my.... Favorite?"

Something is odd. Very, very odd...

I looked back at the stewardess who looked so innocent.

Too innocent, I thought.

I woke Zoe up. Now, that was a bad idea.

"Zoe," I tapped her shoulder and she jerked up and grabbed the nearest thing she could get her hands on: my drinking straw.

"I HAVE A-" She yelled and paused, she looked at what she was holding in surprise, "A straw?"

She then looked at me. I raised my hands in defeat but she raised an eyebrow.

"What. Do. You. Want?" she asked in a pissed off tone.

"I-I was just saying," I sighed and spoke fast, "I don't think that the stewardess is a real stewardess."

"You're kidding me right?"

"D o I look like I kid in this type of situation? IN AN AIRPLANE?!"

"Okay, fine then. Why do you think that this stewardess you're talking about is not a stewardess," she demanded.

"I.... I forgot."

"You forgot?!"

"Sorry. I have a somewhat short-term memory loss."

"So there's no "not-real" stewardess then?"

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean-"

"Leigh, for the first and hopefully the last, relax, chill and loosen up a bit."

"But-"

She shushed me, "No."

"She's"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"But-"

"Leigh..... SHE. IS. A. NORMAL. STEWARDESS. AND. THERE'S. NOTHING. WRONG. WITH. HER!"

I then shut up.

"Good," she calmed down, "Now try and loosen up. Listen to some music or something. Sleep. Eat. Do whatever. We'll get serious again after this flight is over. We do deserve a time out from this chasing-bad-guys-killing-monsters business."

I sighed, "Okay."

She put her earphones on again and closed her eyes. The next thing I knew, she already slept.

I slumped back into my seat. This doesn't feel right. ''At all. ''I looked at the others and they were all were fast asleep. I checked if anyone was around. No one.

This is weird, I thought. I decided to calm myself down and went to the comfort room for some "deep" thinking.

As I walked down the comfort room, I felt that someone was following me, but when I turned around, no one was there. I entered the comfort room and looked at myself in the mirror.

"Breathe in and out," I said as I breathed in and out slowly.

Suddenly, I remembered what just happened.

"She said...." I recapped to myself what had happened. It was all coming back to me, "She said my name. My real name. And...... She said "fear"... My fear of heights? And her nametag......" I gasped.

I suddenly heard a slow-clapping sound behind me and I turned around, and there she was: The "Stewardess" named Jonathan.

I unsheathed my hidden dagger and challenged her, "Come and fight me, Jonathan. If you dare."

"Me? Fight you?" she snorted, "I have better things to do than fight a worthless mortal like yourself."

"Oh, so you're afraid? Chicken!"

"CHICKEN?! You dare call me chicken?!" She screamed at me. Her nails grew longer and her fiery bright red hair burst into flames. Not to mention, her white skin paled and is now pure white. I didn't need an introduction to know who I'm dealing with. An empousa.

"Wh-who sent you here?" I demanded.

"My master, of course! The All Great and Powerful, LUKAN!!"

"Oh, for Zeus' sake! An empousa! Really?! IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO, LUKAN-DUDE?!" I yelled at the ceiling.

"You are now mine, pety mortal girl!" she then attacked me but I dodged it, luckily.

"Ha!" I gave a courageous laugh that made the empousa confused.

"What are you laughing at, foolish mortal?!" She attacked again and I cut her with my dagger.

"AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she yelled in pain.

As she yelled in pain, I had time to run to the door and hide under the empty seats. I waited for a few minutes. and ''BLAM! ''the comfort room door got knocked down. Heavy footseps followed and I heard sniffing sounds.

"Come out, come out wherever you are, little girl," she said in her sudective voice. I was almost tempted to show myself but then something inside me stopped me from doing so. I crawled under the seats and I apparently disturbed Alistair's "beauty" sleep.

He looked at me like I was crazy, "What are you doing under my seat?"

"Oh, I don't know, "I said sarcastically, "Maybe hiding from AN EMPOUSA, I believe."

"A wh-" I covered his mouth and pointed at the empousa who transformed back into a normal looking stewardess.

"The stewardess?" He asked.

"What?! But she was just-"

"I'm sure, you're just stressed out, Leigh. We pretty much know everything about you, including the fact that you stay up late which causes you to have minor stress problems......... Well, maybe n-" He didn't get to finish his sentence. The empousa pounced at him and they were now on the ground.

"Alistair!" I shouted.

No one was going to mess with Alistair. No one. I did what my instincts told me and attacked the empousa. I guess I didn't really need to attack because right before I could do so, pink smoke exploded behind me.

"Not so fast, empousa," a hottie-sounding yet very familiar dude's voice said behind me, "You're mine! And dear, you might want to duck."

Just as he told me, I ducked. I heard an arrow whistling inches above my head and it went straight to the empousa's head and exploded to powder- I mean ash- I mean, ah whatever-you-call-that-powdery-ash-thing-monsters-do-when-they-get-killed.

Thank gods, that was over! I thought.

I stood up and saw who my savior was- not who I expected it to be.

"Hello, dear!" he greeted, "Nice to see you again in an inconvenientt situation! Nice touch on the airplane though, I give you effort for that."

'Eros," I said.