This was just something that’s been running through my mind lately that I finally decided to get done. And of course as a Pagan, I find this theory intriguing and I’d like to see what other’s might think.

Just as a warning, this is not a pro-Christian story and it does make most Christian mythology out to be wrong. Shocking though it may be, I am not writing this to offend Christians, it’s just an interesting idea I have. If you have a problem with that, read no further. Flame if you absolutely must, because it reflects badly on you not me and your ego is not my concern.

Please review and give this a chance. It’s going to be hard-core fantasy, everything from dragons to witches to vampires and angels, so go with me.

Artemis Elderleaf shifted in her seat, smiling softly as Lacuna Coil poured out of her headphones. There was nothing she loved more than a long flight where she could escape easily from her world. All it took was a pair of noise-cancelling, stereo earbuds. Let the Christians have their Heaven, nothing could be more perfect than a six-hour flight and rock music.

She opened her eyes and peered out the window beside her. Losing herself in the brilliant sunset, Artemis hummed softly and, for the first time in weeks, her worries disappeared. Calm flooded through her and Artemis finally started to relax.

Artemis had spent the last three weeks travelling between Germany and Ireland trying to mediate a dispute between two Pagan families. Artemis’s family, the Elderleaf Clan, was the most powerful and pure magical family in existence and with that came responsibility. Being able to trace your genealogy back to a time before Jews or Christians was cool in some ways, but in others, it was a pain.

Being the oldest daughter to the eldest Elderleaf daughter made it Artemis’s job to be trained as the next High Priestess of the family. Right now, at nineteen, Artemis was only fulfilling her post as the family ambassador, but when she turned twenty-one, she would take the position of High Priestess from her mother.

Ugh. The girl grimaced at the thought and pushed it away. Running her fingers through her short red hair, Artemis looked at her watch. They were only a little under two hours from New York and then it was only another few hours before she would be home in Washington. She smiled as she thought of the comfortable family house, safe in the rainy green woods halfway between Forks and Beaver.

Double ugh. Forks. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with these days, now she had to pacify vampires and werewolves alike because of that stupid book. Stupid woman, whoever the author was, blabbing about how things really were in the secret, magical world. Now Artemis would have to trek all over the United States trying to figure out who told the woman everything. Oh. The. Thrills. Kill me now, she groaned in her head.

Slumping down in her seat, Artemis closed her eyes and let the lyrics of “To Live is To Hide” saturate her brain.

While emotions try to come out

Desperately seeking their path

A way so I cannot be undone

And to finish this search for meaning

Someone shook the girl roughly and Artemis scowled as she pulled a bud from her ear. “Yes?” she said shortly to the older woman who leant across the empty seat between them.

“I’m sorry to bother you, dear,” the woman said, the faintest Scottish accent in her voice. “But did you see my son get up?”

Artemis wracked her brain for a moment before she remembered the middle-aged man who had sat between them. He had tried to make a move on her when he sat down, but one withering look from Artemis had set him pouting. “No,” she answered. “Sorry.”

She turned away from the woman’s worried face, already raising the bud back to her ear. Her hand paused as the woman said quietly, “I wonder why he got undressed.”

“What?” Artemis asked. The woman pointed down and Artemis gasped. The man’s worn suit was laid perfectly on the seat, as if his body had simply been deflated where he sat.

To hide emotions causes a blow out

Desperately seeking their blast

A way so I cannot be undone

And to finish this search for meaning

Artemis ripped her headphones off so that music was no longer blaring in one ear. Outside the window, the sky was dark, she must have fallen asleep. They had to be nearly there. Jumping to her feet, she snatched the arm of a passing flight attendant and breathed a sigh of relief. Magic coursed through the girl, she was a Pagan, and the way she looked at Artemis left no doubt that she knew who she was facing. A shiny name-badge proclaimed the woman to be “Tasha.”

“How many?” Artemis hissed. “How many are gone?”

“Almost a hundred that I’ve counted so far, my Lady,” Tasha whispered.

A hundred. Artemis felt her heart wrench painfully. This couldn’t be happening.

I’m going to freeze

Is it my imagination?

“What’s happening, my Lady?” the girl whimpered, her voice breaking as she forced back tears.

Artemis turned bleak eyes on the flight attendant, horror and despair warring on her face, but before she could answer, the screaming started.

“My babies!” a woman screamed, clutching a small pink teddy bear.

“Lisa? Lisa Marie? Where’s my wife?” a man called in fear.

From all around the first-class cabin, people were screaming in panic for people who had disappeared. A woman in the seat in front of Artemis suddenly flew to her feet with a piercing screech. “It’s the Rapture!” she shrieked. “God’s punishing us! Satan is here! We’re all going to die!”

Without a thought, Artemis punched the woman, knocking her out in one go. “Idiot,” she snarled under her breath at the woman’s prone form. “Going to make them panic.” Fear crackled up her spine as people around began echoing the theory. That’s what the world would want to believe, that God was doing this. Aren’t all of you in for a surprise, Artemis thought dully.

Another flight attendant was rushing down the aisle toward Tasha, his eyes wide with horror. Another Pagan, thank the Sweet Goddess. He leaned down and whispered in the young woman’s ear. Artemis stiffened as the girl looked at her in horror. Climbing over the old woman who still stared at her son’s empty clothes, Artemis led the way to the staff section of the plane

“What’s happened?” she demanded.

Tasha tried to speak, but a sob ripped from her throat instead. “Ted,” she whispered brokenly, fixing the man with a pleading look. Ted nodded and turned to face Artemis.

“My Lady,” he began softly. “The pilot is gone and the co-pilot got knocked out somehow and I can’t get him to wake up. We’re on auto-pilot for now, but in about five minutes, we’ll need to bring it back to manual but we have no one here who can fly.”

Artemis processed that information quickly as the panic in the cabins behind them rose to a fever pitch. They needed the co-pilot, but even waking him with magic would take too long. They needed someone who could fly the plane and was untouched by the panic that incapacitated everyone else, which ruled out any passenger who might have the skills. They needed a sane pilot and for that they needed . . .

Jasper. Artemis pushed her mind out desperately, sliding across the magical currents in the air to her cousin in Maine.

Artemis! Jasper’s mental voice was a frightened shout. Art, where are you?

Calm down, Jas, she replied. For now I’m fine, but if you don’t tell me how to land a trans-Atlantic flight, I won’t be.

Artemis felt Jasper force his mind to calm. Any idea what kind of plane it is?

Even in that dire situation, Artemis laughed. Jas, I can’t even tell the difference between a Playstation and an X-BOX, how am I supposed to know that?

Jas sighed and she could imagine him rolling his eyes. Ask a flight attendant, stupid.

Oh. Of course. “What kind of plane is this?” she asked Ted and Tasha as they hurried into the cockpit.

“Seven-forty-seven,” Ted answered. “Boeing.”

Artemis relayed that to Jasper as she dropped into the driver’s seat.

Jasper snorted. Cake walk.

Maybe for you, you smug bastard, Artemis snapped. But not all of us grew up around planes and even less of us know how to fly them.

Then shut up and pay attention, he snapped back.

“Ted, get on the intercom and pretend to be the captain,” Artemis ordered as she set about flicking the switches Jasper told her to. “Get everyone to calm down and get back to their seats.”

“Can you fly this plane?” Ted choked, doubt and fear heavy in his voice.

Artemis turned away from the control and fixed him with piercing eyes. “Trust me.”

Ted hesitated for a moment longer, before rushing to do what she told him. Artemis tuned him and Tasha out as Jasper walked her through the switch to manual and his explanations of how far they could get on their fuel and other assorted matters. Ted took the co-pilot seat and manned the radios. It was happening everywhere, he reported. There wasn’t a single plane in the sky that hadn’t lost at least one passenger. As they got closer and closer to New York, he seemed tenser, waiting to see if they would have to change course. Twenty minutes from the city, Ted swore.

“We’ve been rerouted,” he snapped angrily. “We can’t land in JKF or LaGuardia, so we have to go down to Newark International in Jersey.”

Gritting her teeth, Artemis replayed this to Jasper. I figured that would happen, he replied. But it’s not a problem, I’ll get you there.

Artemis was almost shocked at how easy it was to do as Jasper said. Normally, directions wouldn’t really have been enough, but she had been confident, sure that everything would be alright. And when they touched down gently at Newark Airport, she let out a sigh of relief. She taxied to the end of the runway where space was left for them to stop and then dropped to the floor beside the still unconscious co-pilot. Resting her hand on his forehead, she looked up at the flight attendants.

“He flew the plane,” she said. “He seemed numb, but he kept his head and did what needed doing. He’s a hero.” They nodded their understanding and Artemis pushed her mind into his, waking the man up with a gasp. Before he had fully opened his eyes, Artemis slipped away, leaving Ted and Tasha to explain what had gone on. Hurrying back to her seat, she snatched up her bag; glad she had travelled light for once and didn’t have any checked luggage. Pushing through the crowd making its way to the exits, Artemis slid quickly down one of the shoots and landed easily on her feet, hitting the tarmac running to the darkness of the trees that surrounded the airport.

As she passed through the throngs of people, she listened to their theories. Everything from aliens to Jesus, they were grasping at straws. Artemis frowned as she realized that the Rapture thing was the most popular. She cast a dark look at the starry-sky above her. Such devotion to nothing, she thought bitterly. She wanted to get away from these silly sheep that blindly followed what others said.

What I need now

What I need is to live to hide

When you smother my devotion

With your lies

“God saved us!” a woman said, grabbing Artemis’s arm. She recognized the screaming zealot from the plane and she was pleased to see the bruise that bloomed on the woman’s face. “God wants us to come to him! We must convert!”

Artemis ripped her arm from the woman’s grasp. “It was magic, not faith that protected you tonight,” she hissed. “God didn’t answer, but witches did. Think of that.” she whirled around and stalked through the crowd.

Away from the lights and noise of the emergency-landings, she was able to focus and calm herself. She pulled out her cellphone and flicked it on, hoping that she would be able to get a line out. Her cell phone, like the rest of her family’s, was . . . special, operating on a totally different network than any other phones. She cursed as she tried and found the line down.

“Whatever,” she muttered, tossing the phone back into her bag in disgust. “After everything else, I can’t even catch a break with the damn phone.” She closed her eyes and reached her mind out again, flinging it across America looking for her best friend Thistle. She smiled in relief when she touched her friend’s mind.

Art! Oh thank Goddess you’re alright! Thistle exclaimed. Jasper only just now told us that he’d talked to you, he was too busy before.

I’m sorry it took me so long to get to all of you, spread the word when you can find a quiet spot at home so that my parents know I’m alright.

Thistle didn’t say anything and Artemis could feel the hesitation in her mind. Thistle? Tis, what’s wrong? Artemis asked.

Artemis, Thistle said slowly. No one’s saying anything from home. We haven’t had any contact from your parents or siblings.

Artemis forced back the panic that rose in her throat. It’s okay, she said, not wanting to think about who she was convincing. It’ll be okay. She forced her voice to be business-like as she continued. Thistle, I need you to find me a vegetarian, she said.

Anyone special?

A vegan. I’ve got a long way to go.

Thistle was quiet for a moment. He’s on his way. Five minutes.

Thanks.

Artemis walked slowly through the trees toward the road, her mind buzzing with painful thoughts. What if they were just busy? Or what if there was no one left at home to speak? What if she was alone?

Forcing her fear away, Artemis stared into the darkness, waiting for her escort. Soon she would be on the way home, to whatever was or wasn’t waiting for her.

Lyrics: “To Live is To Hide” by Lacuna Coil, in case you didn’t catch that.

Please review and I’ll love you forever.