Darren Shan - Blood Beast

Waiting for Juni. Nervous. Shivering, not from cold but shock. Wanting to call this off. Wanting her to take charge, be a responsible adult, talk me into giving myself up. It’s strange how she’s acting more irrationally than me. I always assumed a mature adult could control themselves better than a child, regardless of the pressures. Juni’s proving me wrong with every bad call she makes.

“Sorry I was so long,” Juni says, popping up beside me, smelling of soap. She looks rough but not desperate. Her eyes are no match for my wild pits of fear.

“Juni, this is crazy, we should—” I begin, but she puts her fingers to my lips before I can continue. Shakes her head lightly.

“Just go with it,” she whispers. “I know it’s wrong. I know what we should and would do if things were different. But they’re not. So let’s give ourselves over to madness and see where it takes us.”

Before I can think of a suitable argument, she glances at the departures board, then leads me to one of the sales desks. I stand behind her as she requests two one-way tickets. No money exchanges hands. Instead, a quick spell and the sales assistant is smiling, handing Juni a pair of tickets, telling her where to check-in, wishing her a safe flight and pleasant holiday.

Queueing for check-in. I don’t know where we’re going—I wasn’t paying attention at the sales counter. I think about asking Juni, but can’t be bothered. What does it matter? We’re probably just going to hop straight on to another plane at the next airport anyway. And another after that. Throw the Lambs off our scent. Keep moving until we’re safe.

We nudge forward. Soon we’re at the front. Juni handles the practicalities. No passport? No worries! Not when you use a Juni Swan Confusing Spell!

Just over an hour’s wait once we breeze through security. We spend half of it shopping, replacing our ruined clothes and shoes. I suggest buying extra clothes to change into when these are dirty, but Juni says we can restock at the next airport. It’ll give us something to do while we’re waiting for our connecting flight.

The new clothes feel stiff. The jumper itches, the trousers dig into my stomach, the shoes pinch. But I don’t complain. A bit of discomfort is small punishment for the crimes I committed last night.

Sitting on the hard airport chairs. Juni works healing spells, mending the worst of the damage I caused while on the rampage. Her fingers are gentle on my flesh, her voice soft in my ear. Warmth as my cuts stitch themselves closed. Nice.

We’re called to board and shuffle on with the rest of the passengers. A large plane. We’re twelve rows from the front, seats A and B. When nobody sits in 12C, Juni edges over just before takeoff, so we both have more room. She smiles at me as I stare out the window at the runway, glistening in the early dawn light. I catch her smile in the glass. Turn and smile back. She holds out her hand and I take it.

“All alone now,” she says.

“Yes.”

“I’m terrified but strangely exhilarated.”

“Me too.” I give a sickly grin, lying through my back teeth. I’m not the least bit excited, only scared, confused and disgusted with myself for running.

The engines howl. We’re pressed back in our seats. Arrivederci, terra firma.

Exhaustion kicks in before we reach cruising altitude. My eyelids flutter shut. My brain and body scream for sleep. I try denying myself the pleasure—I want to stay alert in case Juni needs me—but I’m fighting a losing battle.

“It’s OK,” Juni says, touching my cheek. “You can sleep. I’ll watch over you.”

“But what if you…” I mutter groggily.

“I’ll be fine,” Juni says. “We both will. Nothing can hurt us now. Not here.”

She’s right. We’re thousands of metres above the earth and rising. The Lambs can’t touch us, not until we land. And with Juni’s cunning, I doubt they’ll catch us then either. No need for the unease I’m feeling. Better to give myself over to my body’s demands and… sleep… just for a few…

Dreams of the cave. The girl’s face. Screaming at me. Trying to communicate, to warn me. Frustration in her expression as she realises it isn’t working. I want to understand her, if only to calm her down. But the words make no sense, even in my dream.

Then her face changes. The voice stays the same, but it’s Juni’s face now. She leers at me. A look of vile hatred. It frightens me. I turn to run but Ma and Pa Spleen are there. “You stay away from our Billy,” Pa Spleen says, blood gushing from the hole where the right side of his face used to be. “We’ll come back and haunt you if you don’t,” Ma Spleen adds, trying to jam some of her guts back into her stomach.

Whirling away from them. Stumbling for safety. I find Dervish sitting on a stalagmite, looking glum. “You’re a fool,” he says sadly. “I thought I taught you better. Running away never solved anything. Especially when you don’t know what you’re running into.”

His face changes. He becomes a werewolf. Growls wickedly and leaps. I cringe away from him. Before he strikes, Juni appears and slides between us. She knocks Dervish flat. I rise, shaking, to thank her. But when she turns, there’s fire in her pink eyes. “Grubbs,” she says, and the word comes out garbled, ragged, as though the lips which formed it aren’t entirely human. The ground rumbles beneath my feet.

I snap awake but the rumbling continues. I sit bolt upright in my seat, not sure if I’m still in the dream, heart racing as it does when I have an especially bad nightmare. I look for Juni, but she’s not there. The rumbling again. My seat is trembling as if it’s about to snap loose from the floor. My insides clench. I feel like something terrible’s about to happen. We’re in trouble. Where’s Juni? I have to find her, save her, get her away from…

Nervous laughter. “I’m glad I’m not flying on a full stomach,” someone jokes.

“I doubt if anyone will have a full stomach if this keeps up,” somebody else replies.

I chuckle and relax. It’s only turbulence. We hit another blast of rocky air— bump! Groans throughout the cabin. People buckle up their seat belts and sit down if they were standing. Another blast and the whole plane shakes roughly, as if a giant has caught it by the tail and is trying to shake the passengers out. Even the air hostesses and stewards make for their seats. That’s worrying—it’s always a horrible feeling on a plane when you see the professionals acting like there’s trouble in store. But it’s a normal, human type of worry. No big deal after what I’ve come through.

I sit back, smiling as kids cry and adults curse. Nervous fliers don’t get any sympathy from me. They’ll be fine when we pass through this patch of turbulence. Laughing and grinning when we set down. Telling their family and friends about the rough flight, an amusing story in retrospect, fear forgotten by the time they reach home. You’re never as safe as when you’re in the air. Everybody knows that, even if they temporarily forget at moments like this. I bet not one person on this plane will hesitate to fly again, regardless of how much rattling and shaking—

The door to the cockpit blows off its hinges and slams into the people in the first set of seats. Screams of shock and pain. Passengers further back crane their necks to see what’s happening.

Some take their belts off and stand, despite the turbulence. Panic is setting in but not taking over. Not yet.

I snap my belt open and slide across to the aisle seat. Where’s Juni? Probably in one of the toilets. I have to find her immediately. Something bad is happening. I need to get to her so we can face it together.

I’m halfway to my feet when I freeze. I can see into the cockpit from here. Pillars of smoke fill the cabin. My first thought—fire! That would be terrifying enough. But it’s not normal smoke. There are strands running from floor to ceiling, left to right, all sorts of crazy angles. Smoke doesn’t form in strands. In fact, now that I focus and my brain catches up with what my gut knew the instant I saw it, I realise the pillars inside the cockpit aren’t smoke at all.