Out of paradise, into the belly of the beast

A vein was visibly pulsing in Justin's forehead as he stared down the woman working at the airline's front counter. She was talking at him, instead of listening. Trying to calm him down, instead of helping.

Does she have ANY IDEA what we've been through? How fucking STUPID I feel right now--Even though none of this is my fucking fault?

Their trip to Thailand had lasted less than 24 hours.

When they tried to catch the airport shuttle to their resort, they found that it wasn't running: in fact, there was no sign of it at all.

When they finally managed to get a taxi, the driver overcharged them by a ridiculous amount--A fact that Justin didn't realize until much later, when he double-checked the currency conversion.

And when they finally arrived at their resort, their beachside paradise... They found the front gates barred and locked.

Unbenknownst to Justin, he had booked a vacation at a very criminal establishment. While the family had been in-flight, dreaming of margaritas and suntan lotion, government operatives were in the middle of raiding the hotel for ****, and the casino for laundered money. By the time the happy vacationers arrived, it was entirely shut down.

With a stern look and a pointed finger, Justin was sent back to the airport with his tail between his legs... And his tired, disappointed family right with him.

The girls were openly despairing, while their mother made some attempt to downplay the disaster for the sake of her son's ego. But she was clearly devastated--And a secret, shameful part of her did blame her son. This was just like him: biting off more than he could chew, and making other people pay the price.

His money was gone, and their vacation along with it. All that was left was to make the long journey home.

"They can't all be snowed in," Justin snapped at the clerk. She was typing away at her computer, trying and failing to find the stranded family a flight home.

"I'm sorry, but the weather really took a turn--And since your booking was last-minute, most... All... Of the alternative seats have been taken by--"

"Last minute? What--No, I already had the flight, I just changed it--It's not my fault that the hotel... That it..."

The young man's volume was increasing, and people were beginning to stare--Most of all his mother, who was standing just a few feet away. Her jaw dropped as her son's ranting rapidly progressed from "understandably-frustrated traveller" to "abusive, entitled asshole."

She'd never seen him act like this before--And she certainly didn't raise him to act like this.

Even the twins were beginning to take notice. They were waiting for their mocha frappés at a counter nearby, and flirting with a couple of college guys. Unlike everyone else in this East-coast airport, they were dressed for the tropics: sandals, booty shorts, and tight, midriff-exposing tops. On the girls' bottom-heavy bodies, that outfit attracted plenty of attention from almost every man in the terminal.

But as their brother's grumbling turned to shouting, they looked over and frowned. Shelby openly facepalmed, while Ava tried to pretend she didn't know the red-faced boy.

"I never should've booked with CUC--Bunch of incompetent amateurs!" As Justin continued to hurl ****, the beautiful woman behind the counter stared back at him with an unblinking smile... The perfect customer-service-face, as though he wasn't actively spitting in her direction.

"Look, just gimme my fucking money back, and I'll go to another airline that's not fucking--"

"Justin." The young man felt his mother's hand on his shoulder, and whirled around. Kelly's face was dead serious, and her grip on her son was firm. "You're embarassing us," she hissed.

"I--I don't--" Taking a look around, Justin realized she was right: a dozen sets of eyes stared back at him. "...Mom, I... I'm sorry, I just..." Hanging his head with shame, he turned back around.

"I'm sorry. Really, I'm... Sorry." The clerk held her unblinking smile, so he continued: "...We just want to get home. Isn't there anything you can book us on? Please."

"I did find one thing, while you were... Speaking," she replied. "A private flight. It's a touch unusual, but I got in touch with the captain and the client, and they graciously agreed to let you board with them."

The printer attached to her workstation hummed to life, and produced dozens of pages filled with densely-packed text. Shuffling it together and stapling it, the woman handed it to Justin.

"Since this is a chartered flight, there are a few additional terms and conditions. A few liability notes, too, since the storm is still affecting the flight path. Please read this carefully--But you'd better hurry, because the gate closes in less than an hour."

Relieved to have a solution in sight, Justin eagerly grabbed the stack of forms and began skimming.

Letting out a sigh of both frustration and relief, Kelly reached over and grabbed the ladies' copies. All three were signed and returned to the clerk before Justin had finished the first page: neither Kelly, Shelby, nor Ava were in any mood to read fine print.

But Justin was trying, flipping through the pages and trying to **** his exhausted mind to absorb some information. It was especially difficult to focus on reading with three sets of impatient eyes boring into the back of his head, but he made an attempt:

Permission to film... Possible pheromone reactions... Unplanned pregnancy? What?

"Justin, please," Kelly sighed, once again placing a hand on her son. "Sign the form, and let's go home."

Justin turned and opened his mouth to protest... But then he noticed that Ava and Shelby were being lead away from the counter by another CUC employee. Their forms were already signed and their boarding passes printed, so she was letting them into the private area. Both girls were skipping along excitedly, the matching heart tattoos on their identically-plump asses visible below their tiny shorts.

"Just through here. The athletes are waiting to board," the woman said, guiding the twins inside. "The pilot already informed them, and--" With that, the door to the private lounge closed behind them.

"Justin," Kelly repeated. "Sign the form."

"I--" Justin hesitated, but he didn't want to piss off his mother any more... Or leave his sisters alone with a bunch of strangers. "Okay, okay."

Five minutes later, Justin was pouting in the corner.

The private lounge was spacious, but today it was a bit of a tight squeeze. Apart from Justin and his family, there were about a dozen people there... Flight attendents, support staff, and seven muscular, dark-skinned, extremely large men.

Justin recognized a few of their faces from TV, but he wasn't a huge football fan. Besides, they weren't exactly looking in his direction: all seven were focused on Ava and Shelby, surrounding the scantily-clad girls and chatting them up.

Mercifully, Kelly wasn't in the middle of the fray. Justin's mother stood off to the side, chatting with a couple of flight attendants. The CUC employees were dressed quite provocatively for airline staff... Way more cleavage and thigh than Justin was used to seeing.

But they were acting very pleasant and mild-mannered towards Kelly, listening sympathetically to her story--And when she mentioned that she was feeling frumpy after spending nearly two days wearing the same outfit, one of them immediately rushed off to get her a change of clothes from the nearby gift shop.

Looking back at his sisters, Justin noticed that the men had moved in even closer... And one of them was stroking Ava's arm. A jealous, protective streak swelling inside him, Justin rose to his feet.

I don't want to get in the middle of... All this... But I can't let them walk all over my sisters, he thought, puffing his chest out and striding forward--

--Only to immediately trip, stumble, and fall face-first into a nearby potted plant.

With a garbled cry of surprise and a THUD, the young man was knocked out cold.