Gifted Ones

Chapter 10 Haven

The plane takes off at two o' clock on the dot. Gabriel managed to get us two rows of business class seats just behind the right wing. The plane is huge, with three rows of seats in our area. I sit by the window with Matthew and Kara on my right. Since I've basically adopted Chase as my guide and savior, I'm a little nervous being away from him.
But I've determined that Matthew is a nice guy and Kara is as harmless as a baby seal. When she's not turning herself into a giant cat, that is.

After about an hour the flight attendants turn off the lights so that the passengers can get some sleep and reduce jet lag. I spend a long time staring out the window and thinking about the the days to come. I know that my dad is in Paris, so every minute I sit on this plane is another mile I get closer to him. However, in light of the fact that he's been lying to me my whole life, I feel betrayed. I mean, my own father can throw lightning bolts out of his hands and I just didn't happen to know? Despite the fact that we're related? Directly? It's not like I don't want to see him, I'm just. . . Hurt.

And what about these Trials they all talk about? Samuel Green had all of the Amulet's power at his disposal. There's no telling what these obstacles will be. They're supposed to be beyond dangerous, nigh on impossibly fatal. Does that mean I may die sometime in the next few days?

I think that a week ago the thought of death would seem unreasonable, laughable, even. Maybe it was a small fear in the back of my mind that I suppressed, but never a reality. Now that my mom is gone, it's right in front of me. I know she's in heaven, of that I have no doubt. Religion has always been something that I said I believed in, but until now I guess I've always thought of it as a thing I'll deal with when I'm ready to die. But now that I might die in this odd situation, I realize that it's all I have to hold on to. My family is torn, my best friend is gone, I'm certainly missing a ton of school, I never got to go on a date with my new supposed boyfriend, and I'm surrounded by strangers whom I owe my life to. I guess if I don't believe in something, I'll fall apart. And believing that my mom is gone, that I'll never see her again, would kill me.

I feel salty tears spill over and flow freely down my cheeks. Desperately I try not to sob, attempting to keep my emotions in.

"Haven?" Matthew asks, "Are you crying?"

"What? No!" I reject with a flicker of annoyance. If I'm crying about something, you don't ask me if I am, you do something nice for me or ignore it like it's not happening. Drawing attention to my tears just makes everyone stare.

"Please don't cry. You're safe now, with us. We won't let anything happen to you. Is it about your mom?"

With a scoff I turn away from him, pulling the jacket I borrowed from Kara over my head. The skin of my face presses against the cold glass of the plane window as I stare out at the stars. I let the tears come freely now, biting the sleeve of my sweater to muffle the sound of my pain. I feel broken. My chest clenches painfully as I try to stop crying. Eventually I just give up and let it wash over me, trying to suffer silently. The steady hum of the plane makes me drowsy, though. My eyes slip closed after a while, and gradually I sink into a deep slumber.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

I awake to the light of the sun and the pain of my empty stomach. Groaning, I sit up drowsily and look around at the other passengers just rising. It looks like Kara fell asleep on Matthew's shoulder during the "night," and he fell asleep with his head on her fiery red one. I smile at them a little wistfully. They do make such a good couple.

My stomach growls loudly and I wince.

"Haven?" It's Chase, sitting in the seat right in front of me.

"Yeah?" I ask, my throat scratchy.

"When did you last eat?"

I think back to before we left, with Morgan hustling around to find some of Kara's clothes for me to wear, showing me where to take a shower, the hurrying to the two cars waiting outside. . .

"I guess lunch two days ago," I reply with astonishment.

He frowns a in concern. "You slept through the dinner they served last night. Actually, you've slept through all your meals in the last two days. Seriously, you need food. Here." He passes me a laminated menu through the crack between the seats. "We don't want you to pass out or anything, you know?"

"Thanks," I tell him, looking down the list of choices. About ten minutes later Matthew and Kara wake up and find menus for themselves, too. When the flight attendants come around we tell them our respective orders before passing back the menus and setting in to wait.

In the end the yogurt I ordered ends up being sugar free. Let me tell you, if you've never had sugar free yogurt, don't try it. It tastes like plain and bitter had a baby. I ignore it and drink the milk I asked for, but my stomach needs food, not liquid. Eventually I give in and choke down the whole thing, practically gagging at the flavor(or lack thereof).

I see Chase smirk at me from the crack between the seats.

"What?" I snap.

"Nothing, nothing. You don't like yogurt, do you? You're face was cute all scrunched up like that."

I blush and look down. Did he just call me cute? "Jeez, cut me some slack. It's not all yogurt, just this blobby stuff from outer space. Whoever came up with sugar free yogurt should be hung."

"Hanged."

"What?"

"Sorry," he smiles apologetically. "I'm a grammar Nazi. I can't help it."

I scrunch up my face again. "Ew. English nerds."

He laughs at my expression again. "Do you have a problem with English nerds?"

"Not particularly. I just don't like people who feel the need to correct everything other people say. It steers the conversation off track. Like it just did."

"Uh huh, what was it we were talking about again? Oh right, your hilarious facial expressions!"

"Oh please! It cannot be that funny."

"Obviously you've never looked in the mirror like that. It's adorable! You look like a baby kitten!"

I roll my eyes and cross my arms, only enticing him to smile wider. With a smirk I scoop out some yogurt from the bottom of the container and reach foreword to drag it across his cheek. He stares at me for a second in surprise before bursting out laughing.

"Excuse me sir," a flight attendant says, walking over with a stern expression on her face. "Could you please be a bit quieter? The other passengers are still asleep."

"Of course," he replies, sobering up quickly. "I'm sorry." She nods and continues on her rounds.

I fall asleep again at some point, because the next thing I know, someone is shaking my shoulder and calling my name.

"Haven? Wake up! You have to see this!" It's Chase.

"Huh?" I groan, sitting up groggily. My mouth feels so dry. "What is it?"

"Look!" Chase says, his hand wedged between the seats painfully, but still on my arm.

I turn towards the window to see what he's talking about. I'm certainly not disappointed. The sun is just barely peeking out above the horizon, sending out pink and orange rays of light that color the clouds like an artist's brush. Below us is a huge sprawling city, the buildings scarcely as large as coins beneath us. The cars look like tiny ants crawling on lines made by a single pencil, crossing and curving and creating odd patterns all over. To the left is a curving, winding river, the thickness of a blue-green ribbon crossed by thin bridges like individual threads. And there, just in front of the river. . . A tower?

"Is that. . . ?"

Chase smiles at me in the soft morning light, retracing his hand to lay it against the glass of the window. "Yup. That's the Eiffel Tower. Bonjour, Mademoiselle Haven. And welcome to Paris!"

Please don't hate me if my next chapter sucks. I've never been to Paris, you see! All the best!

-iambibliophilic