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Kell was almost regretting it.
Whose bright idea had it been to bring her on this trip?
Oh, yes. It was his own.
Delilah Bard might seem to have a wish for death, but she didn't want to die ten thousand feet above the ground, and it certainly wasn't being a pleasant experience. When the plane took off her hands gripped the armrest of the seat so hard that the knuckles were already white on her skin.
Kell fought back the urge to take one of them for himself, but he held still, resting his right hand on her leg instead. She didn't move from the touch. She just continued cursing under her breath at the aircraft and everyone inside it as she squinted. He even had the impression to hear her swear at him too.
After much reluctance to board and fighting to stay at the aisle seat, when the aircraft stabilized in a smooth flight in the air, Lila finally settled down in her seat, crossing her arms in front of her chest and keeping her eyes closed. The music coming out of the earphone in her left ear should have been enough to calm her down, but she hadn't been paying attention to what was playing in a long time.
Kell just watched her reactions in silence, wondering who would survive this trip (him or her), and finally relaxed in his own seat – in the middle seat – when he saw her go still. Rhy was at the window to his left, having slept in his place before they even took off.
At least it's not having turbulence, he thought, imagining how much more chaos would have been if the aircraft had been swaying like crazy in the middle of the sky.
With the two of them quiet beside him, the lights off and the melody of a random music playing through the earphone in his right ear, little by little Kell felt his eyes grow heavy, until he dropped his head forward in a not very comfortable nap, keeping his hand on Lila's thigh.
***
Lila didn't have the courage to open her eyes, digging her nails into her arms and squeezing her eyelids tightly together as she felt that metal box hold itself up in midair, as if the fact that it weighed tens of tons and was carrying two hundred people inside it was nothing.
Why did she even agree to come on this trip?
Being locked inside a plane in the middle of the sky was totally different from being on a ship in the middle of the sea!
She would kill Kell for coming up with such an idea at the first opportunity. But for now, she tried her best to relax, feeling the thumb that was making light circular movements on her thigh, concentrating on the caress and on the lyrics of the song playing on the earphone she was sharing with Kell. It said something about a ghost called Sarows. She liked that song.
Lila had no idea how much time had passed, but with the silence of the place – broken only by the sound of the aircraft operating and the song in her left ear –, she felt that little by little her consciousness was being lost, taking her slowly to fall into an unwanted drowsiness against her will.
But Lila Bard never relaxes, or sleeps.
When she felt a hand lightly touch her right shoulder, she quickly got to her feet and pulled a knife from who knows where and pointed it at the neck of the flight attendant who was serving the snacks. The earphone being brutally ripped from her ear with the sudden movement.
The stewardess jumped at the unexpected reaction and the threat to her life and let out an involuntary yelp of fright.
The people around were also scared and soon the scene turned into a commotion that involved almost the entire aircraft.
Kell jerked in his seat at the sound of the clutter and opened his eyes to see Lila holding a knife to the flight attendant's throat.
“LILA!” He shouted furiously, standing up and grabbing her by both shoulders to pull her away from the other woman and sit her back in her seat by force. “I’m sorry. She's not civilized, but she's not dangerous either.” He turned to the stewardess, who, still scared, just nodded and left quickly, with her hand on her chest as if trying to hold her own heart inside her ribcage, leaving the cart behind with her crewmate. “It was just a bad joke, don't worry.” He explained himself nervously to the people who were staring at him before sitting down again.
Kell just wanted to crawl into a hole right now.
“Are you insane?” He asked through gritted teeth, trying to keep his voice low.
“She scared me!” Lila defended herself. “Doesn't anyone teach these people not to wake up passengers?”
“How did you even go through the metal detector with that?” Kell's speech came out more like a growl than a question.
Lila shrugged, dismissing the information.
“I have my tricks.”
Kell snorted and sank back in his seat, massaging his temples.
"Give me the knife." He held out his hand.
“No!”
“Lila. Give. Me. The. Knife.”
She looked deep into his eyes and saw the translucent blue orb and the totally black eye staring at her seriously. Kell looked as if he would lose his cool if she insisted.
Finally, Lila placed the blade on the hand held out in front of her.
Kell kept staring at her. “All of them.”
She rolled her eyes and begrudgingly started pulling knives out of places no one could even imagine. When she was done, five knives occupied both of Kell's hands.
He didn't even seem all that surprised about it anymore.
“I said all of them.”
“But I don’t-”
“All of them, Lila.”
She snorted and bent to pull out the smallest knife she carried in her boot and handed it to him.
“Are you happy now?” She forced an irritated smile.
"I'll be happy you don't try to stab someone again while we're ten thousand feet from the ground," Kell grumbled, getting to his feet and stepping over her to reach the aisle.
“Wait, where are you going?” Lila questioned.
"I'm going to get rid of it." He replied.
“You can not do that!” She shouted louder than she should have, receiving irritated hisses in response.
He silenced her with a furious glare.
“You'll get them back at the end of the trip.” Kell snarled and took off in the same direction the poor stewardess had gone, probably to hand over the weapons to the flight attendants and apologize once again for his girlfriend's inconsistency.
Lila huffed irritably and threw herself against the backrest.
Why did I even agree to come on this trip?