I stared blankly at the board at the front of the classroom, trying to focus on what Mr Parsons was saying but my mind didn’t want to stay on one topic for too long. I was too tired. I’d barely managed to get any sleep and, when I did, I woke up stiff and uncomfortable after passing out against my bedroom door. Even if I had been able to sleep properly, I’d probably still be tired. I always was.

There was a constant, ever-present fog of weariness that infiltrated every aspect of my life. Well, almost every aspect. I’d never actually noticed it when I was with Mitch but that made sense. It was a fantasy, nothing more than a dream. Why would I be tired?

“Okay, turn to page thirty-two!” Mr Parsons instructed the four people who were still listening to him.

He’d separated the class out into those who he thought would probably do well in their GCSEs and therefore might study Maths at A levels and those who wouldn’t. Most of us were at the back of the classroom but there were a few people who were undecided, myself included.

I wasn’t really sure how I would do or what I wanted to do so I settled for sitting next to Phoebe and staring at the teacher, hoping something would sink in.

My mind threatened to wander away again though, teasing me with a taste of that familiar dizziness that always accompanied my daydreams nowadays. I wasn’t worried about it anymore, I almost yearned for it. But, I had to focus.

I needed to think about my future. The teachers were right. It was important.

But… I had left Mitch in the midst of our escape from Sterling’s people. I wanted to know what the key was for and how he planned to get away. The desire to know more itched. It pulled at my concentration and tempted me.

I fought back halfheartedly. I did want to stay in the real world but…

“There we go!” Mitch cried victoriously. “Latch Farm airfield and without even getting into a gun fight!”

I glanced at the mirrors, double-checking to make sure we weren’t being followed, before my eyes fell on the plane idling on the runway ahead of us. It wasn’t a huge plane but still, my heart thrummed with excitement.

Two people waited on the tarmac in front of the plane, chatting easily as we pulled closer.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” one of them called, putting her hands on her hips as we climbed out of the car. “Been a minute since I saw you last, Mitch.”

He smirked at her, slamming the door shut and retrieving his bag from the boot.

“Well, don’t you look great? Red hair this time, huh?” he asked, nodding towards her.

She grinned and tossed her long ponytail over her shoulder. The vibrant deep red shade caught the midday sunlight, shining beautifully.

I was immediately jealous. I wanted long, flowing red hair. She clearly dyed it and it was so pretty.

“Of course. Told you I’d work my way through the rainbow next!” she said with a grin.

“It looks great,” he replied genuinely before turning towards the guy who was standing in front of us. “Oscar, been a while, how have you been?”

The light-haired, extremely attractive man gave Mitch a smile.

“I’m still alive,” he joked in a deep, gravely voice. “How about you? You look like you’re just about hanging in there?”

Mitch snorted and threw the keys to him which he caught in one hand.

“I’m barely clinging to life, clearly,” he replied in a flat tone. “Crap, I didn’t introduce you. Lauren, Oscar, this is Grace, my latest stowaway.”

They both looked at me and I tried not to cringe away from the attention.

“Nice to meet you,” Lauren said with a smile.

“Good luck keeping up with this old codger,” Oscar teased.

“Nice to meet you both,” I answered with an awkward sidelong glance at Mitch.

He smiled supportively at me before looking at Oscar again.

“Did you bring a spare licence plate with you?” he asked. “There weren’t too many cameras along the route but you never know when Sterling’s twats have hacked the ANPR system.”

“No because this is the first time I’ve ever pretended to steal a car,” Oscar said, rolling his eyes and hooking a thumb into the backpack on his shoulder. “I got everything I need, as always. Couple different licence plates, Chemgene to get rid of all of your leftover DNA and an incinerator’s already burning somewhere.”

Mitch shook his head with a slight smile.

“Thanks, mate. You know where you’re dropping the car when you’re done?” he asked.

“Of course. Already memorised the route.”

“I don’t know why I doubt you.”

“Me either. Next time you’re in the country give me a little more notice, we can grab a drink,” Oscar offered with another handsome smile.

I almost wanted to give up on that fantasy then and there just to start a new one where I was the same age as him. He looked mid-twenties. That wasn’t too old.

“Sounds good. Take care of her?” Mitch asked, sounding slightly desperate.

Panic shot through me and my head whipped around to Mitch as the fear that he was leaving me with Oscar gripped me. I wouldn’t have minded spending a little more time with Oscar, even if the age difference made me uncomfortable, but the idea of Mitch leaving me behind made me breathless.

He wasn’t looking at me though, his eyes were fixed on the car, longing evident on his face.

I smirked at the realisation that he didn’t want to leave the car behind.

“I’ll take good care of her, I promise.”

Mitch heaved a heavy sigh and looked back towards Lauren.

“Alright,” he said reluctantly. “Let’s get in the air.”

I looked away from Mitch to examine the plane cautiously.

It was much smaller than any plane I had ever been on but it looked cool. It was silver with a pointed nose that felt far too long for the rest of the plane.

“It’s an Embraer Phenom one-hundred,” Lauren said with a grin. “Tiny little thing but big enough for the three of us.”

I smiled back at her distractedly, worry starting to edge its way back into my heart.

The plane looked like a strong breeze might knock it over, I couldn’t imagine it hurtling through the sky.

“Need a hand with your bags?” Oscar asked us, breaking through my worries.

“If you don’t mind?” Mitch replied. “Got some in the front and back.”

Oscar nodded, moving silently towards the boot and opening it.

The muscles in his arms strained as he picked up some bags and started to bring them towards the hatch Lauren had opened under one of the engines. I blinked, realising I was staring at him instead of helping and rushed towards Mitch.

“Can I help?” I asked quickly, my face heating up.

“Sure thing, kiddo. Bring these to Lauren, will you?” he said, passing two backpacks to me.

I nodded, lifting one onto my shoulder, and traipsing towards Lauren. I handed them over with a smile before joining Mitch by the car again.

“Anything else?” I asked him, watching as he pulled up the carpeting in the boot.

“Nah, that should be it. Feel free to go in and get comfy, we’ve got quite the journey ahead of us.”

I nodded and turned towards the plane.

I still didn’t trust it but I trusted Mitch and he didn’t seem to have a problem with it. I climbed the stairs carefully, not feeling comfortable with how much they bounced under my weight, before stopping just inside the cabin and staring around.

It was even smaller inside and the cockpit lead straight into the rest of the plane without even a wall separating it. Four white leather seats with built-in seatbelts pointed at each other. One side had a table between them but the other didn’t.

I hesitated, looking between the two sides uncertainly. Should I sit facing the pilot or away from them? Did I want to have a table in front of me or would Mitch need it? And did the door at the back of the plane lead to a toilet because, if not, I had some concerns.

The plane bounced slightly as Mitch climbed the stairs behind me.

“Get comfy, these two take a while to say goodbye,” he said, gesturing out the door behind him at Lauren and Oscar who were locked in a passionate embrace.

His hand cupped her cheek as he kissed her deeply.

“Urm, which side do you want?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from them and jealousy flared in my stomach.

I didn’t want to be kissing him specifically, despite how hot he was, I think I just wanted someone to kiss me with as much fervency.

Maybe, one day.

“Mind if I take the table?” he asked, lifting the black case that I knew held his computer. “I gotta work out where we’re going.”

“Oh, sure,” I said, quickly slipping into the other seat facing the back of the plane and doing the seatbelt up.

Mitch buckled the briefcase into the chair next to me before sitting on the other side of the table so he was at a diagonal to me.

He craned his head to look around me out the window.

“Are they still going at it?” he asked before answering his own question, “Yup. Man, they do this every time.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling with a heavy sigh, a small smile playing on his lips. He clearly didn’t mind it too much.

“Okay, kid, once they’ve finished doing what they’re doing, we’ll head out of here. Once we’re in the air, we can start to work out where we’re going next and head that way. We’ll likely have to stop somewhere to refuel because this thing can’t make it too far but we can shop for anything we need for the next location whilst Lauren is coordinating that,” he explained.

Even if I had felt okay about flying in the tiny tin can before Mitch’s speech, I certainly didn't after. The knowledge that the plane couldn’t make it very far was something I could have done without.

“Does it make sense to start flying if we don’t know where we’re going? Like, what if we get up there and realise we’re going the wrong direction and have to turn around but run out of fuel?” I asked, my voice coming out a lot more high pitched than I meant it to.

Mitch shrugged.

“I mean, that is a possibility but there are airfields close enough that it shouldn’t be a problem and, if for some reason it is, we have parachutes but we won’t need them. Plus, that’s a better option than sitting around and waiting for Sterling’s people to hunt us down.”

I swallowed, hating the idea of having to use a parachute but hating the idea of finding out what Sterling’s people would do to us more.

“What would they do?” I forced myself to ask. “If they did find us?”

Mitch cocked his head considering it.

“Well, there’d be a firefight and the plane would probably be damaged so we wouldn’t be able to fly and my client would owe someone a lot of money,” he started before pausing.

“And then?” I prompted.

“Well… if they managed to successfully capture us alive, they’d find the key and potentially torture us to find out where we were headed and what the next step is. Then, they’d either lock us up, abandon us somewhere or take us with them to help them find the items we’re looking for. I think I’m too useful to them for them to kill me. Unless, of course, Kurt is still leading this group in which case they’d kill us both and then take the key. That man hates me.”

My mouth dropped open and I was at a loss for how to respond to him.

Sterling’s people had felt like such an… abstract concept. I’d seen them in passing, heard about them like they were a boogey monster, but having Mitch calmly explain what they would do to use drove home just how real they were.

“Ready to go?” Lauren asked, bounding up the stairs behind us, her cheeks slightly flushed.

I nodded quickly.

“All ready. Mind heading south until I work it out?” Mitch asked.

“Alright, you know the drill; don’t do anything dumb ’til we’re cruising,” she said, slamming the door shut with a heavy thud.

My breath started to come quickly as the engines quickly started, drowning out Lauren’s hushed voice. Panic grew within me.

The plane was too small, the stakes too big and we still didn’t know where we were going.

It was a terrible idea.

The engines whined loudly, the noise only growing as we sped along the runway. I knew I was hyperventilating but I couldn’t stop myself. Nothing was helping, I couldn’t get my breathing under control.

My eyes found Mitch who was watching me.

Copy, he mouthed before taking a deep, exaggerated breath.

I did as instructed, my instincts shouting at me to ignore him and continue to gulp in air.

He blew the air out, the noise drowned by the scream of the engines, but he still smiled at me supportive.

I continued to copy him, my hands digging into the armrests as the plane jolted into the air and I mentally tried to work out how much damage crashing into the ground at this speed would do to me.

But, thankfully, I didn’t find out. The plane lifted into the air easily, quickly rising to an altitude where the noise of the engines quietened almost too much.

“You okay?” Mitch asked once the fasten seatbelt light switched off.

I nodded tightly, not able to talk just yet.

“Don’t worry, kid, I get it. I used to be scared of flying too. First ten or maybe even twenty flights I took, I cried the whole way. You do get used to it though. I actually quite enjoy them nowadays. There’s something so peaceful about it,” he said with a grin.

I smiled at him, my jaw locked tightly.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t scared of flying, normally I was completely fine, it was the plane. That’s what made me panic. That and the fact that the cockpit was attached to the rest of the plane. I don’t know why that made me so anxious but it really did.

“So, want to have a look at the key?” he asked, loosening his seatbelt so that he could retrieve it.

I nodded before pausing.

“Am I okay to touch it? I won’t break it, will I?” I asked.

“Nah,” he said, holding it out towards me.

I leant forwards, stopped by my seatbelt, but just about managed to close my fingers around it.

I sunk back in my seat, staring at the key. It was less disappointing now but I still expected more somehow. It was a dull, aged golden colour, and about the length of a pen but that was it. I’d expected it to be more decorated or for something to be etched into it but I couldn’t see anything.

“Am I missing something? It’s just a key, right?” I asked. “Could you not have just picked the lock?”

As soon as the words came out, I panicked. The question sounded so rude but I just meant that it didn’t look like a particularly complex key.

Mitch cocked his head and held his hand out for the key which I passed back to him immediately.

He examined the key, running his fingers along it and narrowing his eyes.

“I could have,” he allowed. “I mean, this only has a couple of bits, barely any wards. It’s pretty easy. But, I think the biggest reason is I don’t know where we’re going next. I mean, I have some suspicions but this key holds the answer.”

“What are your suspicions?” I asked quickly, already fascinated.

My fear of flying was forgotten already, I was distracted by the mystery at hand.

“Mm,” he said quietly, “could be a couple different places. I’m hoping it’s somewhere nice and easy like France or Switzerland but I doubt that. Turkey or Greece is looking more realistic at the moment, perhaps Jerusalem. Somewhere linked to Christianity.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Combination of a couple of things,” he replied. “There was a very old reference to Dante in the last place I went to before coming to England.”

“Dante?”

“Yes, La Divina Commedia.” He looked up at me but I was still clueless. “Have you heard of Dante’s Inferno? You know, ‘abandon all hope ye who enter here’ and all that?”

It was vaguely familiar but I wasn’t sure where I’d heard it.

“I think so?”

Mitch shook his head in mock exasperation.

“What are they teaching you in school? It’s widely thought to be one of the greatest works of all time and you weren’t taught about it?” he demanded.

“Don’t think so,” I said with an apologetic shrug.

“I’m not surprised but I am disappointed in the school system. La Divina Commedia or the Divine Comedy is a poem written by Dante Alighieri back in the thirteen hundreds. It’s a snapshot into how the world viewed the afterlife and explains the different sections, starting with Hell, Purgatory and then Heaven whilst discussing sin, virtue, truth and theology,” Mitch explained, his eyes lighting up as he spoke.

I couldn’t help but think if he were a teacher, he would be my favourite. His enthusiasm reminded me of Mr Ray.

“Anyway, Dante had a huge impact on religion and culture as a whole and although he described his Hell or the Inferno, he didn’t explain the specifics of it. There was an artist, Manetti, who actually did a series of woodcuts of how he imagined Hell to look, based on Dante’s work which of course was picked up by Galileo who favoured him due to the political situation of the time but that’s neither here nor there. The floor of the abandoned castle I broke into before leaving Italy was actually a mosaic rendition of Manetti’s overview of Hell.”

My mind raced as I tried to keep up with what Mitch was saying but I felt like I was falling behind.

I wanted to ask him to repeat it but I was too embarrassed.

“Okay?” I said quietly, more to myself than him.

“I was so sad to blow that up,” Mitch said with a sigh. “Such a beautiful building, it just needed a little love and care and it could have been restored so easily.”

“Then, why did you?” I asked.

Mitch sighed heavily.

“It’s the price of the job. Sometimes you have to ruin something beautiful to protect it and yourself. I just destroyed the room but if Sterling’s people had found it, they would have ripped the whole mansion apart. At least my way most of it is still standing,” he said sadly.

I opened myself to speak but Mitch gasped, looking down at the key.

A high pitched squeal came from it as he gently twisted the circular end of the key.

“Oh, ho. This really isn’t just a key,” he said as it slowly separated from the shaft.

I watched as he placed the end of the key on the table and glanced into the hollow shaft.

“Well, what do we have here?”