Woven

Olivia: Chapter 12

Okay, so now they were on a death trip towards a city that would soon be eaten by an overwhelming entity that would leave their bodies as a pile of lifeless ash. If Olivia was keeping track of the days correctly, it was Saturday. She loved weekends. And of course, there was nothing like the threat of death to finish off a week of dodging demons and conquering caves.

Now she merely had to wait for the plane to land in the bunker, but since they had only just reached the city limits, it was going to take a while, knowing Siko. Why Animus hadn't rendezvoused with them outside the city, Olivia had no idea. It was going to be extremely inconvenient to walk out of Premoni with a demon hoard and a dome of death in pursuit.

As Siko made her evasive way through the city to protect the base's location (what was the point of that, really?), Olivia impatiently stroked Mia's spines. She had noticed a while ago that doing so rubbed more of the inky blackness off of her now golden spines. What little black did rub off this time faded within a couple seconds. If a cat was going to shed its overcoat, Olivia would've wanted it to fade away. She was glad she didn't have to worry about her clothes being stained black. Then again, looking at her attire, black on black wouldn't have really mattered.

She heard her boot heel clicking beneath her. She hadn't realized she was fidgeting, but now it was obvious. Was she really so anxious? Olivia forced her heel to stop moving, but the fidget almost immediate shifted to her fingers, which drummed on her cheekbone as she leaned on the armrest. She sighed; it was going to be a long flight.

Ryan sat down next to her. In the past few minutes, he had recovered his senses and awoken tied to Mia on the ceiling. The site of him struggling with the latch on the luggage strap had been amusing, but eventually, Olivia had had Mia come down and she helped him out of it.

Olivia looked over at him, "What is it?"

He smiled, "Oh, nothing. Just thanks for lugging my useless body around while I was unconscious."

"Is that all?"

Ryan laughed. A peppy laugh that was kind of out of place considering the situation, "I suppose you do look more glum than usual."

Olivia rolled her eyes, "Don't worry, I'm only miffed we're having to get even closer to that orb of death since last time."

"Oh, so it doesn't have anything to do with Therin and Kyo chatting over there?"

She practically jumped out of her seat, "What?!"

It was true; across the aisle at the front of the plane, Therin and Kyo were staring at each other, most likely having a telepathic conversation. Every now and then, Therin would snicker and Kyo would smile, as if they were sharing jokes. The nerve. As if Therin had the right to be happy while they were flying to a near-death situation.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Olivia turned her head and found that it belonged to Ryan, who was calmly smiling, "Best not to interrupt. If I know my twin sister, she's having a good time."

"How did you get to be so grown-up?"

He shrugged, "I have a friend named Aly. Hanging around her kinda grows you up."

Olivia sat back down, deflated. She stroked Mia's spines again. The leopard sent feelings of comfort toward her and images of open fields. That's what communication with Mia was like, since she didn't have a language. She merely sent what feelings or images she decided would best fit. Or, at least, that's how Olivia figured it worked.

"You know," Ryan started, "if anyone looked hard enough, they might guess you're jealous."

"Jealous? Me?" Olivia rolled her eyes, "Anyone can have a good time."