14
The five Kidellians plus Damien shuffled on board the crowded plane, Heather leading the way. She checked her boarding pass once more for her seat number, printed neatly underneath their destination, Sacramento. She had never been to California before, but she figured this trip wouldn’t give her much time to go sight-seeing. Heather glanced at the faces of the innocent people sitting in their seats as she made her way down the narrow aisle. It hit her that these were the people she was doing all of this for; if she failed, all of these people would be either dead or under the command of Lykos. Both of these options left an uneasy feeling sitting in the bottom of her stomach.
Heather plopped down in her window seat, with Jimba settling into the middle seat next to her and Henry occupying the aisle seat. She heard Damien, Matt, and Ivy getting comfortable in the row behind them. Heather studied the citizens in the plane, all of whom she imagined lived relatively normal lives. A woman soothed her baby with a bottle. A young girl dozed off with her headphones plugged in. A teenage boy played a game on his laptop. A man in his late twenties heaved a huge golf bag into the overhead compartment. Heather frowned. Was he allowed to bring such a large bag on the plane? She glanced at the petite flight attendant standing in the front of the plane, but she looked undisturbed. Heather shrugged it off; she had never traveled much, so what did she know?
Jimba nudged Heather next to her and pointed out the man Heather was just looking at and snorted. “That guy is the reason why we should just let Lykos take over and get rid of idiots. He took up, like, the entire overhead bin!”
Heather nodded. “I know! I was just thinking the same thing!” She and Jimba giggled together, and Heather realized Jimba was the only one of the Kidellians she didn’t really know.
“So, how did you get to meet Damien?” Heather asked as the laughter subdued.
“Well, it all started when I was born,” Jimba raised her hands in front of her, imitating the old monkey, Rafiki, when he held up Simba, and started singing the song from the beginning of the movie “Lion King.” Heather stared at her at first, not sure whether to laugh or not, but then she heard Henry cracking up. She burst into laughter, causing the people in the row in front of them to turn around and stare. Jimba started to sing louder and even more off-key.
“MaaaaAAAAAA! SvvvEENNAAA! MAMAMAMEEEESHOONANA!” Heather and Henry laughed harder, and the man with the huge golf bag shushed them.
“Oh, shove it, Golf Man,” Jimba said. Heather and Henry stopped laughing for a moment. This was so unlike Jimba, it caught both of them off-guard for a moment. Then, all three of them spiraled into another round of giggles. Golf Man looked miffed, and something flashed across his eyes, but then he turned back to his magazine without another word. Their laughter had died off as the flight attendant started going through the emergency procedures.
Heather shifted uncomfortably in her stiff chair. She stared out of the tiny window and tried to push back the uneasiness she felt. As soon as she had stepped onto the plane, it was as if a tiny alarm were going off in her head. Heather couldn’t help but think of that stupid dream that she kept having. The dream where someone is stepping toward her, threatening her, pushing her, and suddenly she’s falling. Heather shook her head and brushed away those thoughts. She told herself that it was just because she was in an airplane, and that’s where she always falls from in the dream.
Heather stared out the window as the plane crept away from the boarding gate. She let out a puff of air and closed her eyes, hoping for some much needed sleep.
Heather stood up and stretched her tired limbs. She glanced around and saw the other passengers, including the Kidellians, follow suit. Looking out the small window, she saw the sun shining brightly in the sky. They had just landed in Sacramento, and Heather was itching to get off the plane. Her nerves had never calmed; she still felt uncomfortable about being in the plane. Why, she had no idea. I mean, it was just a scary dream she had had a few times. Right?
Henry stepped out of his seat into the aisle, followed by Jimba, then Heather. As she scurried down the aisle, Heather accidently bumped into someone pulling a bag out of the overhead compartment.
“Oh, I’m sorry . . .” Heather started, but stopped suddenly. She had bumped into the man with the oversized golf bag. He had been in the process of bringing it down, and when Heather ran into him, he dropped the bag with an extremely loud thump. Heather had never been much of a golfer, but she knew that that sounded way too heavy to just be golf clubs. She stared at the bag for a second, which was a second too long. The man grabbed the bag and took off sprinting down the aisle and exited the plane. Bewildered, Heather stood there for a moment.
“Hey!” Ivy shouted. “What are you doing, idiot? You’re blocking the whole aisle! Either go after him or move!” That shook Heather out of her daze. She ran down the middle of the plane, trying not to trip on the chairs, her small duffel bag thumping against her side. She heard Matt and Ivy directly behind her.
The other passengers seemed to take no notice of this. As they raced off the plane, the flight attendant chirped, “Have a nice day!” If anyone thought three teenagers chasing after a man with a golf bag was strange, they didn’t say anything. Heather silently thanked normal people for being closed-minded.
As they rounded the corner of the boarding ramp, they saw the man running as fast as he could with his giant, heavy bag dragging him down. Ahead of Golf Man, Heather saw Henry and Jimba calmly walking.
“Jimba! Henry!” Heather shouted. They both turned around, but just a moment too late. Golf Man shoved past them, pushing both Kidellians against the walls. He was surprisingly fast, despite the heavy bag. As he ran, Heather could see the dark green bottoms of his shoes.
“Come on!” Matt said as he grasped Jimba by the arm and pulled her forward, and Heather did the same with Henry.
“Who was that?” Henry breathed. All five of them were running now, and Damien was nowhere to be seen.
“Mordan. Something in his golf bag that’s definitely not golf clubs,” Heather explained between gasps for air.
“What is it then?” Ivy snapped, still managing to be rude even though she was out of breath.
Heather hesitated before answering. “I have an idea, but I hope I’m wrong.” Before anyone could ask any more questions, the Kidellians skidded to a stop when they realized they had entered the boarding area of the airport. Pedestrians milled around, lugging around luggage and minding their own business. They all frantically looked around for Golf Man.
“There! That way!” Jimba shouted excitedly, and took off running to the left. The other four followed, and Heather saw the man running towards the baggage claim area, where the exit was, but he was quickly slowing down. The immense bag was weighing him down.
Golf Man glanced behind his shoulder at the five teenagers rapidly catching up to him, and must have realized it was a losing cause. He paused for a moment, then turned around to face the Kidellians. He stared at them for a split second, and something flashed over his eyes that Heather had never seen in Anirbas: Fear.
The man dropped the golf bag, which made a sickening cracking sound. He whipped around and sprinted out the door, leaving nothing behind but the bag.
The five mangy teenagers approached the bag, all winded from the unexpected workout.
“Why did he run away?” Matt murmured suspiciously. No one answered him. They stood around for a moment, everyone catching their breath and looking around for Damien. He was staggering down the wheelchair ramp, breathing heavily and cane click-clacking away.
“Do you think he was the one we were looking for? One of the main Mordans?” Henry asked.
Heather shook her head adamantly. “No. He looked scared, and he ran. Anirbas never did either of those things. It’s like, Lykos’s main Mordans don’t even care if they die in the process of killing you. But his other Mordans always seem scared, or . . . I don’t know. Different.” Henry, Jimba, and Matt nodded in agreement while Ivy stood in silence, arms crossed over her chest.
Matt kneeled down and ran his hand along the black fabric of the bag. Damien finally arrived, beads of sweat resting on his wrinkled forehead.
“Well,” Damien said, “that was fun.” He glanced around at the faces of all the Kidellians waiting for someone to explain, a slight smile dancing across his lips.
Heather was the first to speak up, and she quickly filled in Damien on what they knew.
Damien nodded. “So, what’s in the bag?”
Everyone turned to look at Heather. She hesitated, then said with a grimace, “Let’s find out.” She prayed that it wasn’t what she thought, but she had a sneaking suspicion it was.
Matt reached for the silver zipper, and slowly opened the golf bag. Heather stared at his steady hand, wishing she hadn’t said anything. Once it was fully unzipped, he flung the flap over. Heather and Damien cringed, but weren’t as shocked as the other four. Matt gasped, and stumbled backwards. Henry paled, and his hand flew up to his gaping mouth. Jimba shrieked, and took a good four steps backwards. Ivy looked like she was having a panic attack inside, but was trying to hold it together.
Damien looked at Heather, fearing the answer before even asking the question. “Heather, is that . . .”
Heather closed her eyes and nodded her head before Damien could finish the question that filled her with dread.
In the golf bag was a body. The same body that had been in the trash bag outside Heather’s house.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Jimba moaned, doubling over and clutching her stomach. The body was a boy, around Heather’s age. His shaggy brown hair lay limply on his cold, pale forehead. Disturbingly, his hazel eyes were still wide open, staring up at the five Kidellians and Damien, and his mouth was hanging slightly open, giving him a completely terrified facial expression. A dark blue T-shirt that read SACRAMENTO HIGH SCHOOL clung to his body with jeans covering his lower half. The horrible stench of a rotting corpse hung in the air.
“Can you at least close his eyes?” Ivy complained. She seemed to have somewhat regained her composure, along with the boys, while Jimba still was in shock.
Damien sighed, and reached down to the boy, closing his terrified eyes. The five Kidellians groaned. “Well, none of you were gonna do it, were you?” Damien said, which was met with silence.
“Zip it back up, Matt. Please,” Jimba pleaded quietly, gripping her stomach. Matt nodded, and rezipped the golf bag.
“What do we do with it?” Henry asked, staring at the group.
Heather shrugged. “Take it with us, I guess.”
“We can’t just lug around a dead body,” Ivy snapped.
“Yeah, but we can’t just leave it in the middle of the airport,” Matt countered.
“Actually, that sounds like a great idea,” Jimba chimed in, looking green.
Henry shook his head. “Guys, why are we even arguing about this? We aren’t leaving a dead person in an airport. We’ll have to take it with us. Besides, there might be evidence on him, or something. Something to help us.”
“So, we’re just gonna stuff him in the trunk of a taxi? That’s not very smart,” Matt said.
“It’s probably illegal,” Jimba agreed, looking only slightly better.
Matt looked at her thoughtfully. “Is it? I mean, we didn’t kill him.”
Jimba thought for a moment. “Well, yeah, but we are stuffing a dead guy in a trunk . . .”
“Guys! Focus!” Heather said, waving her hands. “We’ll take Will with us and put him—I don’t know. Somewhere. Then . . .”
“Wait, stop,” Henry was the one to cut her off this time. “Who’s Will?”
Heather pointed to the bag. “Will. The dead guy.”
Ivy stared at her. “Heather, why are you naming dead people?”
Henry shook his head. “What’s with you and naming things? First Carlos, now Will . . .”
“It seemed like a better idea than just calling him the dead body!” Heather defended herself.
“Enough!” Damien boomed. The five jumped. During their bickering, Damien had stayed silent. “I have never had a group of Kidellians who fight more than you guys do,” Damien said through a small chuckle and a smile. “We’ll take Will with us, figure out what we’ll do with him later. But, for now, at least we know where we’re going.”
The Kidellians stared at him, confused. Damien smirked. “Didn’t you see his shirt? Sacramento High School. You kids are going back to school!”