Patrick and Sarah stopped at the information counter to talk to the lady about checking in their luggage. Sarah asked Karis and Kaleb if they could see Jessica anywhere, but to stay close to them. Karis looked into the crowd of people, but didn't recognize anybody.
"How are we supposed to find them in this crowd?" Karis asked out loud to no one in particular.
"Just look for a blonde girl with a carrot top boy and another boy that has a big head, you can't miss them." Kaleb said smiling at himself.
"Not funny, Kaleb." Karis gave him a dirty look.
"I thought it was hilarious." Kaleb patted Karis on the back. "You just don't have good taste in jokes."
"That's not the only thing she has bad taste in." A deep voice said from behind them.
Karis jumped and twirled around with her fist raised. Kaleb closed his eyes as if he knew who it was and slowly turned around. When he opened his eyes he saw Titanium standing there with Jessica and Kenny behind him. Karis lowered her arms and tried to avert her gaze away from what she thought was a seriously muscular torso for an eighteen year old boy.
"Oh, hey body...... I mean Brody." Karis's face blushed as she fumbled on her words. "Sorry, you startled me."
"He prefers to be called Titanium, remember Karis." Kaleb said through gritted teeth. "I would hate to BREAK that nickname tradition."
"She can call me anything she likes, I don't mind." Titanium winked at Karis and smiled his killer smile.
Jessica stepped out from behind Titanium and gave Karis a friendly hug. "Girl, a lot has happened since we last talked to you two." Jessica said with enthusiasm, "We were sitting at the cafe in town when I got a call from my mom telling me what happened. After I hung up with my mom, your mom called me. She told me to get you both airplane tickets to Manteo and that y'all would be going back to school with us as soon as possible. I didn't ask too many questions, but she did tell me some of the need to know information. I was confused at first, but the more I thought about it I started putting things together."
"So what the heck is going on?" Karis asked impatiently.
Jessica opened her mouth to start explaining, but Titanium interrupted by clearing his throat. "Wait until we get on the plane before you go into details, Jessica, there're too many ears around us." Titanium twirled his finger around and pointed for them to check out their surroundings. Karis looked at Kaleb, who in return looked around the airport.
"I hate to say it, but he's right. Let's wait till we're safe and secure on the plane before we start talking." Kaleb agreed.
Patrick and Sarah walked up to where the kids were standing and Kaleb made quick introductions. Patrick shook everybody's hand then turned to Kaleb and said, "All your luggage is taken care of except the backpack you're carrying with you. Do not leave that backpack anywhere. Keep it on you at all times and don't take anything out of it until you and Karis are alone. This is very important, do you understand."
"Yah, I got it. When will I see y'all again?" Kaleb asked.
"We'll call you when we find out more, just keep your phone on." Patrick said.
Sarah gave Kaleb a hug, when she pulled away a tear fell down her cheek. Her voice cracked as she said, "I love you!"
"Love y'all too." Kaleb's voice was almost a whisper.
Patrick lightly grabbed Kaleb around the neck and pulled his head towards him until their foreheads touched. He looked Kaleb in the eye and said, "Guard on!"
"Guard on!" Kaleb repeated with a devilish smile.
Karis watched this tender moment between a father and son wishing she had a chance to do the same with her mother. Hopefully when they get to the school she will be able to at least call her mom and talk to her. She hated the fact that the last time she saw her mother was during an attack. She was just relieved to know that her mother made it out alive.
Kaleb and Karis waved goodbye to Patrick and Sarah as they watched them disappear in the airport crowd. Karis couldn't believe how crowded the airport was at night. Everywhere she looked there were people standing around waiting for someone or their flight to board?
Kaleb was starting to get restless. "Okay Jessica, where does this flight board at?"
"We have to go through security first. The gate where we board is 42C and it's that way." Jessica said pointing to a hallway at the far end of the building.
They walked to the security line and waited to go through the metal detector. There were a few people ahead of them. Karis looked back at Kaleb to make sure he was right behind her when she caught a glimpse at two people that were standing several people back from them that seemed out of place. They were both extremely tall and wore clothes that covered their entire body. Their faces were shadowed by the hoodies they were wearing so Karis couldn't see their faces. She turned to look forward and nudged Kaleb secretively on the arm. Kaleb must have known she was trying to get his attention without the others knowing because he put his arm around her, leaned in and whispered, "What's up?"
"Don't look now but there are two people behind us in weird outfits. I wouldn't think anything about it but they're awfully tall for normal people. I might just be paranoid."
"You're not paranoid. I saw them when we got in this line. They definitely look out of place. Let's just keep several people between us and them. Maybe they'll get on another plane."
Titanium moved on the other side of Karis to walk beside her and Kaleb. "Hey, are you two having a James Bond moment right now or can you let me in on the secret."
Kaleb gave Titanium a look that would kill, but lowered his arm from Karis's shoulder and told him about the two suspicious people behind them. Titanium glanced behind them, acting like he was looking at Jessica and Kenny, and then turned back around. "Yes, that does look kind of weird. Wait here, I'll go chat with the others and let you know what we come up with."
Titanium eased back to walk with Jessica and Kenny. Kaleb shook his head as if he didn't know what to think of their new friends.
"What the heck does he think he's going to do? Probably get us in trouble with security." Kaleb said with a funny look on his face. "Should we really trust these guys, I mean one guy never talks and the other thinks he's unbreakable. Jessica seems to be the only sane one, but she has a major case of ADHD, so does that really make her safe? I believe we can get through this together without them. We have all we need in our luggage."
"Kaleb." Karis interrupted. "Let's just get through the flight and at least the first day of school, and then we can go from there."
"Okay, they might have their plans, but we need to make our own alternative plans, just in case."
They finally reached the walk through metal detector. Karis placed her back pack in the basket to go through the x-ray machine as she walked through the metal detector with no problem. The others did the same with only Kenny having to take his belt buckle off and go through it again. Karis grabbed her back pack from the basket and threw it around her shoulder. She turned around to make sure Kaleb was behind her when she noticed the two tall people ducking through the metal detectors with no alarms sounding. Karis relaxed until one of the guy's trench coats opened a little to show a large knife handle sticking out of his pants at his hip. Karis felt her throat constrict and her chest tighten in fear. She didn't realize that she was holding her breath until Kaleb tapped her on the shoulder. Karis gasped and grabbed Kaleb around the arm. She started dragging him towards the others.
Kaleb looked at her curiously. "What's wrong, Karis?"
Karis was silent until they caught up with the others. She tried to slow her breathing long enough to explain what she saw to all of them as they walked down the hall towards the gateway.
"One of those tall guys had a knife. I don't know how he made it through the metal detector, but he did.".
"Are you sure?" Titanium asked.
"Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't make up something like that."
Titanium opened his mouth to say something to Karis but Jessica spoke up before he could say anything. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Just act casual, when we get to the fork in the hallway that's up ahead we'll split up and try to lose these creeps. If they don't follow in Karis's direction then we'll know they're not after her."
"But how did they get through the metal detector without security finding the knife." Kaleb asked.
"The knife was most likely made out of animal bones or antlers." Kenny finally spoke for the first time in a deep German accent.
"Wow, he can speak. I'm glad to finally hear somebody other than ego boy over here say something." Kaleb mumbled as he pointed his thumb at Titanium.
"Man, you're about to get on my last nerve with all these cracked up remarks, don't make me put you in your place." Titanium warned as he bowed up his chest in frustration.
"Not now guys, let's stick to this plan and meet at gate 42C. Karis and Titanium can go down that hall to the left and the rest of us will go to the right, both halls should circle around back to the main corridor." Jessica ordered as she looked over at Titanium and Kenny. "Hopefully those guys will go straight, but if we should run into any problems and you have to use your powers, try to make it look like an accident."
"Wait! Hold up a minute. I'm sticking to Karis. I might not have powers yet, but I promised my parents I wouldn't leave her side." Kaleb insisted.
"Okay, fine! You go with Karis and Titanium and everyone meet at gate 42C. Don't forget that number. We don't need anyone getting on the wrong flight." Jessica handed everyone their tickets and started walking.
They made it to where the walkway branched into three corridors. Karis, Kaleb, and Titanium went to the left while Jessica and Kenny went to the right. As Karis walked around the corner she quickly looked behind her at the two tall guys. They were walking casually and didn't seem too interested in five kids at an airport. Karis was praying to herself that those guys would keep walking straight and not turn the corner. Every few steps she would glance over her shoulder to make sure they weren't behind them. She thought her prayers have been answered until she saw them stop at the fork in the hallway, look both ways as if trying to figure out which way to go, then turned in their direction and started walking down the same hallway as they were. Her heart felt like it kick started into overdrive and was about to beat out of her chest.
"Don't look now, but we've got some major fans behind us." Kaleb said sarcastically. "Do y'all think they want my autograph?"
Titanium moved in between Kaleb and Karis to make sure they could both hear him. "Ok guys, listen up! If you haven't noticed, the crowd in this part of the airport has dwindled down to one or two people and that's not a good sign."
Karis looked around the airport and noticed that Titanium was right. The crowd that she saw earlier was gone. She felt nauseated as her nerves started taking over and making her stomach do flips.
"We need to get somewhere with lots of space in case these guys decide to attack. If they're Scrapers, then they'll attack us at any time and not care." Titanium stopped talking when his cell phone started to ring. He answered it after the second ring, "Hey Jessica, what's up?"
He tapped Kaleb on the shoulder to get his attention. When Kaleb looked at him, Titanium pointed his two fingers at his eyes then behind him as if gesturing for Kaleb to keep an eye on the two guys. Kaleb nodded as Titanium continued his conversation with Jessica on the phone. The two guys were still behind them walking a little faster than they had been a moment ago.
Titanium hung up with Jessica. "Okay, Jessica said she can see us through the walls between us and if we follow this hall there'll be a waiting room at the end. The problem is that room has no people in it, so I'm pretty sure if they're going to make a move it'll be in there. Jessica and Kenny are headed that direction; they will probably beat us in there. If we're all together it'll be easy to counter attack."
"What should we do when we get in that room?" Karis asked nervously.
"You two just stay out of the way. You need to get to the gate for our plane as fast as you can and we'll meet up with you there. Remember, look for 42C." Titanium said as he started to walk faster. "And Kaleb, make sure you two get on that plane, no matter what."
Kaleb nodded to make sure Titanium knew he agreed with him.
The entrance to the waiting room was just a couple of yards in front of them and they were trying to get to that room without making a scene. Karis almost thought they were home free until she heard something behind her that sounded like a sword being slid out of its sheath. She quickly turned her head and saw the two guys start to stride fast towards them. One of them had a large bone handle dagger in his gloved hand. As they came toward them both of their hoodies fell down around their necks, Karis recognized them as the two creatures that were in her house when it exploded. They didn't look human at all. They looked like a cross between a wolf with no fur and some kind of alien. Their face was the shape as a wolf except they had a lot more teeth with four long sharp tusks that stuck out from the top and bottom of their mouth. They had dark grey skin that was covered with slick clear coat that reminded Karis of slime. They stood approximately six foot tall on two feet and Karis imagined that they had a body like a Minotaur underneath the clothing they wore.
Karis panicked; she grabbed Kaleb's arm, digging her finger nails deep into his skin. He winced as he looked at Karis's frightened face, then turned his head to see the two creatures coming towards them quickly. The creatures stopped abruptly and glared at all of them with two pairs of blank eyes, black as coal, fixated on the three of them like they were their next meal. Karis and Kaleb stood there for a moment in shock, staring at the massive creatures in front of them. The creatures exploded forward at once and were bearing down on them at full speed. They snarled to show their razor sharp teeth as they heavily salivated from the smell of fresh blood.
Titanium pushed Karis and Kaleb towards the waiting room, hoping there would be another corridor on the other side of the room that would lead back to the main terminal. He knew Jessica and Kenny was supposed to meet them in that room, but he didn't know where they would be coming from or if there was another room attached to it. He had to go with his instincts.
Karis stumbled but she didn't fall as she finally took off running. Kaleb grabbed her arm and pulled her along beside him. Titanium was behind them yelling something Karis didn't understand, so she just kept running as fast as she could to get through that doorway to the room where she thought she would be able to hide.
The creature nearest to them leaped into the air, bounced off a wall to give it momentum and landed inches away from Titanium. Titanium swung his fist hitting the creature in the jaw. The blow knocked the creature several feet away sending it sliding across the tiled floor where it came to stop at the edge of a step. The other creature jumped over the fallen creature and swung its claw at Titanium, barely missing his leg as it scraped against the floor leaving long, deep gashes in the concrete flooring. Titanium tucked in his body and rolled across the floor to get away from the creatures deadly claws, but when he stopped himself he was laying on his back. He had to get on his feet quickly so in one swift move he rolled on his shoulders, arching his back perfectly as he pushed his body upward with his arms, landing on his feet without stumbling. He yelled to Kaleb, "Get to that room, find Jessica and Kenny, and get on that plane. I'll take care of these two Scrapers."
Kaleb grabbed Karis's arm and drug her towards the waiting room. Karis heard one of the Creature's high volume shriek as Titanium flung it hard against the opposite wall. It crashed down onto the floor with heavy debris from the wall falling on top of it, pinning the creature to the ground. Titanium walked up to it, grabbing the knife from its grasp and buried it into the creature's skull. Black liquid oozed from the wound and pooled around the Scraper's head. The monster convulsed for a few seconds then went still. Titanium jerked the knife up as the creature disappeared in a puddle of black slime.
The other Scraper screamed an awful scream and took off after Karis and Kaleb. They ran through the doorway of the room and slammed it behind them. Kaleb just had enough time the lock the door before they heard something hit the other side hard, cracking the paint on the door and the surrounding wall. Karis looked around the room for a place they could hide but all she saw were chairs and small tables. She felt Kaleb grab her arm and pointed to a door on the other side of the room. A sign above the door read 'Gates 42A, 42B, & 42C'. "There's the corridor to gate 42C. Let's get to the terminal and board that plane." As Kaleb finished his sentence, Jessica and Kenny came through the door leading to the gates.
"Man are we glad to see you two. Titanium is still in the hallway with one of those creatures y'all call Scrapers. He has already killed one of them, but we ran in here before anything else happened." Karis said in a frantic voice pointing at the damaged door with her finger which was shaking uncontrollably.
But before anybody could say another word, the wall next to the door exploded into tiny pieces of debris that scattered across the floor and the body of the second Scraper landed hard on a small magazine stand next to several chairs that were bolted to the tiled floor. Titanium strolled through the opening of the wall with a furious look on his face. He had three deep gashes on his left arm that was oozing red blood. The creature started to get up, but it was thrown back against the wall by an invisible force. Kenny had his hand raised towards the Scraper as chairs tore loose from the floor and started flying towards the monster hitting it in every direction. The Creature's body slid down the wall landing supine on its back where it Kenny pinned it to the ground with his force power. The Scraper was clawing at the invisible force to try to get up but Kenny's force was too strong for the creature to budge. Titanium walked up to the creature with the knife in his hand and kneeled down with his knee on top of the creature's chest. He glared down out it and said through clenched teeth, "Go to Hell!"
The Scraper let out a horrific scream as Titanium raised the knife over his head and drove it deep in the monster's chest, twisting the blade as it pierced the Scraper's heart. The beast twitched a few times and then melted in a puddle of black slime just like the other dying creature. The room filled with a sulfur smell that reminded Titanium of something evil. Kenny walked over to Titanium to help him up off the ground. Kenny gave him a both thumbs up and Titanium returned his thumbs up with a smile. Jessica ran over to Titanium to make sure he wasn't hurt too bad. She saw that his shirt sleeve was shredded up to his shoulder. The gashes on his arm had stopped bleeding, but he had congealed blood all the way down his arm to his fingers tips.
"Are you okay?" Jessica asked Titanium with concern in her voice.
Titanium looked down at himself and started brushing dust off his clothes. He checked out the cuts on his arm and then realized he was still holding the dagger that he took away from the Scraper. It had strange markings on the blade and bone handle that did not look familiar to him. He grabbed a newspaper from a table that was still standing and wrapped the dagger in it. He walked over to Jessica to place the wrapped dagger in her bag and said, "Yes, I'm Okay. It's just a flesh wound. I just need to get cleaned up and change my shirt. I'll be fine. Make sure you keep your bag with you at all times. That dagger may be important and I want to get a better look at it later."
"Okay, now let's find a bathroom for you to get cleaned up fast. We must get on that plane before someone sees this mess and the security guards come running in here with guns blaring, looking for someone to shoot. We're the only ones in here." Jessica warned.
"What the hell was that? I knew there were evil things in this world that we're supposed to protect the normal people from, I get that, but that was something entirely different. Those two creatures were more like aliens and they were after us! Is that what we're faced with?" Kaleb asked in a demanding voice.
Titanium walked up to Kaleb and stopped just inches away from his face. He looked extremely tired and extremely irritated. "Monsters, mutants, beasts, creatures..... Call them what you will, but the actual technical name of those things are Scrapers and don't even get me started on what they are called in different languages, but they all have one thing in common; They are dangerous and deadly. Right now we don't know what they're after, but it looks like you two are on their list. So I think you better stop asking questions that can't be answered right now and get on that plane." Titanium ordered as if he was talking to a child. He waited for Kaleb to crack a joke, but when Kaleb was silent Titanium looked at Karis with a worried look. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, let's just get out of here because my nerves can't take this room much longer." Karis said with a shaky voice, her body trembling uncontrollably.
"Titanium, go find a bathroom so you can get cleaned up, then meet us at gate 42C. Kenny, you go with him to make sure his cuts don't need stitches. We have plenty of time to explain everything during the six hour flight." Jessica said taking control of the situation then pointing toward a door that led to gate 42C.
Titanium was still staring into Karis' hazel eyes when he finally winked at her before turning to walk to the hallway with restrooms sign above it. Kenny nodded at Jessica in satisfaction and followed Titanium out the door.
"Boy, he's really dramatic isn't he?" Kaleb said to no one in particular as he took Karis's hand to comfort her. Karis just smiled a faint smile at Kaleb and let him lead her to towards the gate entrance. She took one last look in the direction that Titanium went, but he had already shut the door behind him. Jessica saw the look on Karis's face and said, "Don't worry, Titanium and Kenny will meet us at the gate."
"Can we just leave them here? They can catch the next flight, can't they?" Kaleb grumbled.
"No, if you remember correctly Titanium saved your butt, so I don't think it would be a good idea to leave him. He would just hunt you down at school and kill you." Jessica said putting her arm around Kaleb, pulling him and Karis towards the exit. "Now let's get to that gate before we run into anymore of those Scrapers."
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it so far. Let me know if you want the next chapter sooner.
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Wishful Deviltry
ParanormalEach person inherits an ancient genetic code from their biological parents. Unfortunately, not all humans are created equal. For some humans like Karis Kenzie the lottery of genes give some people exceptional powers. Karis and her best friend, Kaleb...
