A Collection Of Short Stories

Flight JK666

I'm hallucinating. I have to be. The man sitting right next to me does not look like the devil. And he did not just disappear.

       The plane lurches forward, taking off. I am going to die! I am going to die! My grip tightens on the armrests next to me. I adjust my seatbelt so I'm barely breathing. I look out the window. Nothing. I feel like I am falling, falling so fast that my stomach plunges and starts to flip over. I tense up, my legs going numb. I can't breathe. I'm suffocating. I pull down the blind and cover the window. If I can't see it, it's not real. Breathe in. Out. In. Out. I calm down. It's all okay.

       The plane jolts me from side to side. This is it. This is how I die. My worst nightmare. The worst way to die. The plane steadies. It was just turbulence. I should have known better. After a while, I fall asleep.

       My body aches. My body was tense as I slept, I realise. I'm still on the plane. I open the blind and look out the window. Night time. This is worse. How can the pilots see? What about oncoming planes? We have more of a chance of crashing.

       I smell food and coffee. A flight attendant walks by without stopping. I'm hungry, but why risk pulling down the tray table? If we crash, getting out will be even more difficult. If I survive.

The plane goes down and once again, I fasten my seatbelt. Why doesn't anyone notice that we're crashing? We are going down fast, and yet everyone around me seems calm. I look out the window again and my ears have the sensation that someone has plugged their fingers in them. My ears pop and the pain is excruciating. I hyperventilate. This is not happening. You can't greet death calmly! I look for a way out of this plane and to safety. I could jump out. Could I?

       No, I can't. If I jump, I will die. If I stay on, I will die. There is no safe way out of this situation! Every possible outcome results in death! ... What if the plane does land safely? We are going towards the ground really fast and we are going to crash and die! Why am I the only one panicking?

       Time seemed to go on for eternity – we are falling but we haven't died yet! Is this what death is like? Is death an eternal nightmare? Where you keep on reliving how you die, just falling and falling forever? Falling and falling forever?

       The plane touches the ground with a bump and a screech. Did we crash? Did I finally die? Is this the end? A robotic female voice is heard from all over the plane saying, "You have reached your destination. Have a nice day." All at once everyone undoes their seatbelts and get up, grabbing their bags and walking off the plane. We didn't crash. Slowly I follow the others off the plane, grateful for this nightmare to finally end.