Missing

Plan

Reyna's POV

I woke to a loud thud from over head. Bolting up into a sitting position I grasped the hilt of my sword. Shifting into a crouching position I made my way carefully to the cracked sliding door. I could hardly see in the darkness and I knew I hadn't been sleeping long. Thalia and I had been watching the stars when I had drifted off to sleep. If it was still dark outside it had to at least be getting close to morning. Another sound came again though it was muffled this time. Still crouching I waited for whatever it was to come barging into the train. The anticipation was enough to make me sweat, as I scanned the dark for some sort of threat. The door opened further and a dark figure slipped in. I moved tackling them hard. They squirmed viciously when I noticed two piercing blue eyes staring back at me.

"Thalia?" I exclaimed. She immediately slapped a hand over my mouth her eyes darting to the open door.

"We have...to be quiet." She breathed, carefully releasing me. I shifted my weight off of her glancing over my shoulder still prepared for a threat. "They're here."

"Lycaon is on the train?" I gasped.

"He's checking the carts. We can get off but we have to do it fast." Thalia crept carefully over to where our bags lay and slipped one over her shoulder before handing the other to me. The dark sky was beginning to lighten ever so slightly. I'd been right. It was almost morning.

"They're getting closer. Do we have plan?" My lips hardly moved as I spoke.

"Yes. The train will be slowing down for a checkpoint very soon. When it starts to decrease in speed we can jump off. Lycaon will still be too far back to notice us as long as we don't run into the breeze." She reasoned. "We don't want them to have our scent."

"Understood." Sure enough, as Thalia finished her explanation I could feel the slightest shift in the train's speed. She moved closer to the door anticipating the stop. Slowly the train began to decelerate; it's wheels screeching as the shaking  locomotive stopped. There was a hiss as the engine relaxed and Thalia inched towards the exit when a loud bang sounded from above. She flinched backward nearly slamming into me. She slapped a hand over her nose and mouth to muffle the sound of her breathing. Time seemed to tick by slower than normal and my pulse pounded loudly in my ears. Neither of us moved an inch and I felt my heart sink a little when the train jerked into motion moments later. We had missed our chance to get off.
Still, we waited in silence expecting the worst when there came the sound of receding footsteps. Slowly the sound dissapeared and Thalia let out a sigh of relief. There was a terrible scraping noise from up above as light along with wind now swarmed our enclosure. I looked up to see a large gaping hole in the train roof.

"Hello ladies!" Lycaon grinned, his sharp teeth pulling awkwardly at his cheeks. Wolves lined the perimeter of the opening where the roof had been ripped off. I leapt to my feet in an instant readying my blade only for Lycaon to chuckle. "Ready for a fight. Cute. But you have no silver. So I have nothing to worry about."

The train door suddenly collapsed inward before being ripped off and hurled away. There clinging to the side of the train cart was a pale creature with red glowing eyes. It was the upper half of an empousai , it's fangs dripping red, and a menacing look on its face. Thalia instinctively moved a step backward. "I see you've met my friend. Interesting creature isn't it?"

My brain struggled to find a way out of this but there was no where to go. Both exits were blocked. Thalia had her spear in hand now, sparks rolling off the tip. Her shield was strapped to her other arm and her eyes glared back at Lycaon. "Enough talk. What do you want?"

"I warned you miss Grace to stay out of this. Sadly you don't do what you're told." Lycaon snarled dropping lightly into the train car with us. "And I don't like it when people don't listen."