Inhabited

Chapter 5

"Sully!" A voice bellows and he gets up, moving out of my eyesight.

My body sinks back to the ground, my chest tightening, but I don't think it's from feelings or anything. This hurts and it feels wrong. Now that I have nothing to distract me, I can feel the pain again. It's shooting through my body, hitting every inch inside. My breathing comes out in ragged gasps and my head spins.

The canopy of trees above me quivers, warping a little. They turn into a blurry green blob and shrink down toward me. The pain fizzles away once more and I let my eyes close, taking in the numbness that tingles through my body.

A scream enters my ears, but I ignore it. It isn't mine and I don't care. This ground is far too comfortable to ignore at the moment. I almost feel like I'm floating. At least I'm not hurting anymore. A deep voice speaks somewhere nearby, maybe next to me, panic lacing his words.

Please nobody touch me. It'll bring the pain back, I'm sure.

The voice slip away and I let out a sigh of relief, because it means they're moving away. Maybe they're convinced I'm just relaxing. That I don't need them to watch over me.

~~~

The flight attendant scurries out of the captain's cabin, panic lighting her eyes as the plane jolts forward, shaking violently. We tip to the right and I clutch my arm rests tighter then ever before, this time, truly ripping into the upholstery. Great, that's money out of my pocket. Or mom's pocket really. She's not going to be very happy.

From above oxygen masks drop, dangling, swinging wildly.

"Get your masks on!" The attendant demands and hurries to go help the few who struggle.

A shadow falls over me from the side and I look up as Sullivan slips around me to take the middle seat of my row. He buckles up and reaches up. Instead of grabbing the mask dangling in front of him, though, he snatches mine and pulls it on me. My hands go up, curling around his fingers and our eyes meet.

"I love you, Fawn." He says softly.

Turning from me, he grabs his own mask and I look back to search fort he flight attendant, but she's nowhere in sight. Twisting in my seat, I grip my mask to peek at the curtain at the back that leads into the economy class. She has an entire plane to try and protect.

My heart thunders in my chest. The plane shakes again and I feel my stomach plummet as if we're dropping. My fingers peel out of the armrest and grab at Sully's hand, intertwining our fingers. At least if we're going down, it's together. Neither one of us will have to spend a single day mourning the other.

My breath catches in my throat and stings. I sputter, heaving large gasps of air even with my mask on.

"Fawn. Fawn, breathe." Sully whispers in my ear, trying to sound as soothing as possible. "Breathe, Fawn. It's okay, you're alright."

I try to focus on his voice as the plane wrenches forward and we slam into the seats in front of us. The cart ladened with food and drink scuttles past us, slamming into the wall.

"Not to worry folks," the pilot speaks from the speaker above. "We've just hit some turbulence. Hold tight and I'm sure we're going to be just fine." But the wobbling of his voice only ensues panic.

I look at Sully again, but his eyes are over my head and his slightly turned. He doesn't have his mask on and his lips are moving, but I can't hear the words over a rushing sound in them.

And then the plane tips forward once more, sending us crashing back into the seats in front of us. An arm wraps around my waist, tugging me to him. The plane jolts and my head slams back, hitting something hard. Blackness flickers in my vision.

~~~

I sputter and blood spews out of my lips again. There's silence. I turn over, pressing my palms to the ground. My arms shake from the weight but I pull my legs up until my knees dig into the dirt and propel me up. A rushing roars in my ears all over again. The edges of my vision are dark again, forcing me to see through a quite literal tunnel vision.

People run around, feet slamming against the ground that are just loud thuds in my ears. I can see lips moving, but they're garbled sounds in my ears.

Heaving myself to sit on my knees, I slowly turn my head in all direction to take in my surroundings. My eyes land on the plane. The front is smoking with orange flames licking at it. Bodies litter the ground, unmoving. My heart lurches, jumping up into my throat. I rise with shaking legs to my feet and take one step forward. One foot in front of the other.

My eyes are on the nearest body laying on the ground. I have to see, need to see. As I approach, my stomach churns. Stopping inches from it, I stare at the girl.

I vaguely recognize her from the boarding lines at the airport. She'd been next to me in her lane. I was in the first class line and she in the other, with a sneer on her face as she glanced at me. Her hair is multi-colored, like a rainbow, and slicked back. Her clothes are black and studded with chains dipping out of the pockets.

She heaves, sputtering, her eyes flickering open, searching above for a moment before shifting toward me. Pain is lit in bright brown eyes and she whimpers, her fingers clawing at the ground.

"Nate." I heave, coughing.

I grip my chest, the cough making it sound as if I've smoked for the last thirty or so years. God, I hate asthma. My knees lock from the pressure of my lungs and I fall to the ground next to the girl, trying to grab hold of nature's oxygen as best as possible, but my vision begins to pixelate anyway.

Something cold and hard presses into my mouth and a spurt of oxygen slams through. I heave, sputtering for a moment and another squirt blows into my lungs as I grip hold of my inhaler. Sully releases it so he can step around me and crouch next to the rainbow haired girl, assessing her. Fog drifts through my mind and my body prickles in numbness as my head spins. I teeter forward, closing my eyes momentarily in order to gather my bearings and stop the dizziness from taking over.

Never look up when you're dizzy. It'll only make you black out. That's what Nate told me once. It's stuck with me since.

When it passes, despite the pain still radiating through my body, especially in my back, I push back to my feet and move around the two of them to the girls other side.

"What do I do?" I breathe, rubbing at my chest.

"She'll be alright for the most part. Her breath is knocked out of her for a bit. But her ankle is dislocated. So we need to put that back in place." Sully tells me and nods to her ankle. "We'll need to also find things for a stint, so she can at least walk. Well, hobble I guess."

I cough, the sound grating at my ears, but it's better sounding now. It just won't go away with all the smoke filtering through the air.