A shrill ripped through the dead air, triggering chaos and panic. Only those close to the scene knew who was caught, but it still made everyone think they were next.
But when they got up, three shots were fired. It was enough to bring back the cabin filled with tension and terror.
"WELCOME ABROAD!!" Announced the unmasked pilot as he raised his gun with his right hand and held the hair of one of the young cabin attendants with the other ruthlessly.
For some reason, the left side of his upper body was splattered with blood. The red liquid-like splash paint was also on one side of his face, making him look as if he was possessed.
Nobody wanted to know whose blood it was and just prayed that they weren't his next victim.
The crazy pilot was about to make another statement as he looked through the crowd, only to pause with a squint. "You..."
He then looked down at the woman in his hand and pulled her hair backwards ferociously. One could almost hear the ripping of the hair from the scalp of the cabin attendant.
The young woman screamed and cried only to get a kick in the stomach from him. When the kick in the stomach didn't subdue the cries, he brought down the end of the rifle straight to her face, breaking her nose.
The man was brutal. He didn't flinch or showed emotions other than annoyance.
"Tch..." He clicked his tongue after examining the face of the crying and bleeding woman who was once his subordinate. The pilot then pointed the gun at the actress with raised hands only five metres away. "You, come here or she dies."
The actress complied in a heartbeat without uttering a single word. She walked with a stone face to the man grinning like a complete psychopath.
"That's it, that's it." As Eirene got closer, the pilot murmured. The young woman in his hand was no longer of use to him. "Now kneel." He commanded.
The woman didn't obey instantly. But before he could use violence against her, she silently eyed the cabin attendant in his hand and looked back at him.
"Very well." The man let go of his former subordinate to the ground, who crawled away from him to her friends. He didn't need to order the actress again. In the next moment, she was kneeling on the spot with her hands up.
He laughed at her like he was watching the funniest comedy. "Yeah, keep on doing that."
"Oh, babe, are you cheating on me?" Came a coquettish voice from the door.
The pilot's laugh immediately disappeared as he turned to his crime partner. "Of course not! You are the only one for me. I was just teaching her a lesson."
The cabin attendant with a gun skipped to her lover and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I knew you'd say that. I was just joking."
She then diverted her attention to the dead-looking actress and spat at her as if she was a savage. "B*tch!" And with the strings of bodily fluid hanging from the corner of her mouth, she loudly ordered, "Gag and tie her up."
People thought things were already bad, but they were wrong.
From the same entrance walked a nervous young man. Multiple gasps came from the cabin attendants.
"Isa... no..." The nose-bleeding cabin attendant muttered as tears streamed down her face. She was held up by her friends, but that didn't stop her from trying to reach out to the young man.
"I'm sorry..." Said the youngest, newest cabin attendant as he pointed a handgun at the woman who treated him like a young brother. On his right arm was a blood-stained bandanna wrapped poorly.
Everyone, apart from the two hijackers, fearfully watched the actress getting tied up using a wristband and a belt and her mouth stuffed with a tablecloth.
"Take her away." Ordered the cabin attendant to the young pilot. After that, she walked away from the cabin, her partner following her like a lap dog.
As she was held up and forced out of the cabin, the manager made short eye contact with the actress before she was taken away.
'I've got this.' Those eyes said.
----
"Sit here." Eirene did as she was told and sat uncomfortably in the resting compartments for crews.
For now, she was the only one there with no lights or anything.
Just as she was about to start memorising the details, another order was given.
"Face the wall."
She followed again.
Ruffled sounds of movements were made behind her head, but before she could know what it was, a thunderbolt landed on her head.
In the fading consciousness, she could hear the male cabin attendant chanting, "It's your fault. It's your fault..."
----
"ARES!"
"WHAT?!" Ripping the earphones off, the young heir snapped his neck towards Eric sitting in front of him, alarmed. "What happened?!" But Ares quickly covered his mouth.
He had forgotten they were pulling an all-night, and well past midnight, and people in the house, including his parents, were asleep.
He was glad Willow wasn't sleeping on the same floor as him or right now, she would have come with a baseball bat to fight off whatever caused her little master to scream.
Despite shouting his name, Eric was engrossed in the phone screen, covering his mouth in the horror of what he was watching. He was taking a ten-minute break and he was supposed to be catching up on the latest medical news.
Ares knocked on the wooden table of the study carefully.
With horror stuck on his face, Eric showed him the live news. "Ms Queen is coming back today, right? This happened forty-five minutes ago... Don't tell me she's on that plane..." When Eirene texted them in the afternoon, they were already together, and hence, he knew about the change of plans to come back a day early.
Actually, Ares wasn't hearing any of what his friend said. He was deeply immersed in what the news reporter was saying, not hiding the excitement.
With the help of live translators, he could understand what the man on the screen was talking about.
As the reporter kept pointing in a certain direction in the clear sky, the background became more crowded, and scary shouts could be heard.
"No way..." Ares muttered.
The screen changed to the details of the hijacked aeroplane and the surveillance footage of the exact moment of the incident. For now, the only identified suspect was a cabin attendant in her mid-thirties named Karen Ly.
The boy stuttered, "I mean- there, there must be another flight. They must have boarded that one and not this one.... This can't be happening."
Just as he tried to deny it, the news brought a screen of the flight schedule and announced that the hijacked flight was the first flight to the US.
Eirene had said she was leaving on the first flight home.
"Call- text her! Text her! Maybe it's not too late! I'll text Jaxon." Eric retracted his phone and gave awakening slaps on Ares's shoulder.
The boy nodded absentmindedly. His phone even dropped on the floor when he removed it from his pocket.
[Are you alright?]
[Please tell me you are not on that plane!]
[If you haven't boarded, please DON'T board it]
[Please tell me you are safe and reply to this as soon as you see it. I'm begging you]
Are waited for the little 'read' sign for minutes but no matter how much he blinked or brushed his eyes, it never came up.
It was the same for Eric.
The boys couldn't believe that the people whom they met, yesterday and talked to all day just until two hours ago, now had the possibility of never seeing them again.
In the quiet, devastated atmosphere, a single ding was made on Ares's phone. Faster than a flash, he unlocked his phone and opened the chat. There was no difference. Instead, there was a notification of a video with the headline [BREAKING NEWS!! QUEEN OF VILLAINS IN THE HIJACKED PLANE! DELIVERS A STATEMENT]
----
Eirene was drifting in and out of consciousness. She was already dizzy from not getting any sleep, and that made her symptoms worse.
She didn't know how much time had passed when she felt something heavy and warm over her bounded body.
Instinctively, she tried to move it off, but her body didn't budge. Instead, she felt ice at her temple. Finally able to open her eyes, she first saw something like a stick stretched from her forehead. It didn't take long before her vision cleared, and she recognised that as a rifle and the person who was sitting on top of her was the pilot with a smile like a clown.
The actress didn't resist or tried to say something. She knew the rifle was not a toy, and he could pull the trigger any time. Also, she was tired and didn't have any energy left in her.
Seeing that Eirene wasn't doing anything and blankly staring at him, the pilot's smile was replaced with lip-quivering anger.
Like a whip, a fire burned the woman's cheek. The pilot had slapped her.
Even then, Eirene did not give him what he wanted, a sense of dominance and pleasure, by not reacting to his actions.
The man laughed hysterically. "You wanna play f*cking games now?! I'll show the f*cking game!"
In the next second, her clothes were ripped, showing her smooth skin like a baby's and the two breasts covered up by a black bra.
The man smirked and reached out to one just at the moment to be stopped.
"Babe?" A singy-voice came down to the crew's resting cabin. It was the middle-aged cabin attendant.
But before she could see the two, the pilot had jumped up from the bed, covered the actress with a blanket and stood by the bedside just in time.
The pilot did not make eye contact with his presumable lover once she was in front of him. "Are you-are you done collecting all the devices?"
The girlfriend stepped forward, but the man also took a step to hide what he was doing.
She frowned but said, "Yes. Praise me." Although it sounded coy, it was full of dominance and order, and there was no choice but to comply with her command.
The man stepped forward and patted the woman's head, but that was not enough. The woman pulled him into a kiss, and as they kissed, she glared at Eirene, full of hatred.
When they parted, the pilot adjusted his rifle and was ready to go back up to make demands from the police. "Let's go, my dear. We have to prepare Issac for the biggest moment in his life."
He began climbing up the stairs to realise his lover wasn't following. "What's wrong?" He asked.
The cabin attendant didn't move her eyes from the actress on the bed. "Why don't we make her do it instead?"