Page 13 of Tormented By Regret

"Strap on!" He yelled back at me as he pulled up on the wheel, I got jerked into the seat beside him. I quickly scrambled to get my seat belt on just as he practically grazed a peak of a mountain.

"If this doesn't kill us, I will Barry!"

"Not comforting at the moment," he uttered as he steered the plane over the mountains as best he could.

I flinched at the sound of one of the side panels scraping rock and although I don't scare easily, I did ask God to forgive me for last night's job gone wrong.

I heard the woman on the other side of the door scream in terror. I looked at Bandit and grabbed him by that cheesy shirt of his.

"Can you land this plane!"

"If you get your hands off me, I can." He stated simply.

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Then, do it!"

I managed to scramble back out to the main cabin. With terror in her eyes, Whisper looked up at me.

I was supposed to bring her back to Washington in one piece, not in several. Macabre had warned me this wasn’t going to be an easy trip, but he’d forgotten to mention the raging lunatic part. Although she was a pretty lunatic, but one, nonetheless.

Whisper was cursing up a storm at me as I jostled my way toward her. I undid her seat belt and tore her out of the seat, grabbing onto her and the seats as the plane continued its descent.

"Where are you taking me now!"

I pulled her toward the emergency exit, listening to her exclaim how incompetent I was and if she could, she would tear my guts out. All the time, knowing full well, that would never happen. It was a litany of empty threats that I had to endure as I strapped a parachute onto her and then sat her back down.

“Do not move,” I warned, before running back toward the cockpit.

Bandit met me halfway and I slammed the parachute into his chest.

"You know Jameson's gonna have a field day with you."

"I’ll worry about that later. Let's go!" He shouted, brushing past me.

Her clear bright eyes met mine once again, true fear in their depths, and I actually held some empathy for her. She watched in horror as Bandit tore the door open. We were currently gliding.

He turned to us and with a big smile he gave me a brief salute and flung himself backward.

"Shit!" She cried out, grabbing onto me as we teetered onto the edge of the doorway. “Where’s your parachute?” She asked, patting me down.

“You’re it, sweetheart.”

She blinked twice, registering my words and then she shook her head. "You wear it! You need it more than I do!”

She tried to remove it and I clamped my hands down on her shoulders, holding the thing in place. “You take this off, you die!”

“What about you?” She screamed.

I looked out the doorway and grabbed her by the straps. “Okay. You take this off, we both die!”

“I can't do this. I can't."

"We've got ninety seconds before we graze mountains again! And no one's pulling this tube up! We jump, and we lock our legs together, got it! I’ll walk you through it!"

She looked down into the clouds and then back up at me. "Please don’t die," she said quietly.

It was the most sincere thing I'd ever heard from a person. But it surprised me that she was more concerned about my life than hers. The look in her eye tore at me. This was the real her. A scared little girl who wanted to run away. I knew that feeling all too well. But now wasn't the time to reminisce. We had to go.

Securing my hands around the straps, I flung myself back, tugging her into me as we fell out of the plane. She closed her eyes, not making one sound as we plummeted to the ground. I slid my legs around hers, and she locked them like I’d told her to. This wasn’t an easy feat and I had to hold on for dear life when the chute opened.

---