Saving Chloe

Chapter One

[Part One]

"I hate planes," Chloe, my aggravating twelve year old sister, complains. She's moving back and forth in her chair, annoying everyone around her, especially me. I keep my back to her, only feeling her movement through my own chair, as I stare blankly out the window. My brother, Calen, who just turned eighteen and believes he's the hugest flirt you will ever meet, is philandering with the over-the-top-beautiful flight attendant. She just has to stop every single time she walks by to talk to him. I roll my eyes at their reflection in the murky airplane window but don't turn around to voice my opinions. Chloe is still continuing her monologue as if everyone actually care about anything she has to say.

She finally says something genius, "I just don't understand why we have to take a plane!"

"You know what I hate?" I ask in my best monotone voice, one I've perfected and claimed as my norm since the divorce. Our kind-generous-lovely father has a house in Bodega Bay, California, where he spends his summers. This year, he's marrying some blond bimbo, for the billionth time, named Chrystal. I don't understand why we have to go, it's not like this one will be the last. Each time it's the same, he'll enchant her with lies about how much he loves us, how much he's always there for us, how much he misses us when we're not around, and all that bullshit. In reality, he's the one who walked off and decided we weren't worth his time, not even a simple phone call on our birthday or Christmas. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the money he sends, but to have to lie about pretending to like us is a whole other story. He's as fake as the flight attendant's tan and white teeth.

Chloe's shrilly voice brings me back to the present, "You're just mad because you don't want to go." I turn to see she's pouting and has her arms crossed. Wasn't she just complaining about this forsaken plane? "All you care about is yourself."

Yeah, that's it.

"That's not even remotely true," I reply back in the same monotone voice. Calen keeps smiling at the flight attendant who is now located in the front of the plane, preparing us for takeoff. I roll my eyes again before I lay my head back and close them. I hate planes with a passion, and now we were finally getting this show on the road. "I just don't understand why we have to go is all."

"Why don't you want to? California beaches? I can't wait to go out and lay around while getting my tan on," Chloe squealed, earning a bleak and resentful look from the large bald man in front of her. His wife kept trying to get him to turn around but he wasn't having it for some loud twelve year old girl to annoy him throughout the two hour plane ride. Shouldn't he have his seatbelt on since we were preparing for takeoff? He kept glaring at Calen, as if this simple look will rewrite the wrong done in his life. She's an excited twelve year old, dude, if you hated people so much you probably should've just driven there yourself.

"Honey, sit back down," the bald man's wife was saying. "The plane is preparing for takeoff."

"Yes, let's not start a fight," Calen was saying as the flight attendant, who had a major crush on my brother, walked over to "check things out." She smiled down at Calen first before turning to the big guy.

"Sir," even her voice made me want to vomit, "if you would kindly turn back around..." I think her name is Magnolia, but that didn't really matter. She wouldn't live to see tomorrow. My brother will have long forgotten her name by the end of the day.

"I have the hugest headache and..." the large guy started but never got the chance to finish. It was like we were in a boat in the swarming ocean, that's how it felt to me. An invisible current crashed into us, rising us up and turning us on our left. Not a very good thing for a plane to turn sideways like this, with the overpowering current quickly taking over. Not this close to the ground. And with the windows shattering.

Screams echoed around me, including my own. We were going back down. Fast. Too fast. The flight attendant went flying a few seconds ago, along with the large man who had knocked some guy out along the way. And man did I hate the feeling of falling to my irrefutable doom. My arms stretched out as if that would obstruct my impending destiny. I wasn't thinking clearly, otherwise I wouldn't have done what everyone else was doing. At least I should be overjoyed that I'm not on the left side of the plane, which will be the first to make contact with the ground.

I don't remember much after that, though. The scene happens in flashes, black and white, only pictures not movies. One: my sister's mouth open, her face scrunched up, hair floating all around me as she grips me hard enough to draw blood. Black. Two: my brother's mouth ajar and turned towards my sister and I, his eyes wide with trepidation and misery. Black. Three: looking past Calen to the ground as we're falling, all the shattered glass and bodies littering the ground already. Black. Four: impact, mostly darkness with only a diminutive amount of light. Black. Black. Black. Five: my eyes open and close repeatedly; same scene over and over, openness, blood, dilapidated metal, and fire. Black. Six: Calen's awake and checking on Chloe, whose eyes are closed and face rimmed with her own blood. Black. Seven: Calen is checking my pulse, his mouth open as if he were speaking to me. Black. Eight: Chloe's arms grasp my shoulder as she tries shaking me awake. Black. Nine: Calen takes off my seatbelt. Black. Ten: I'm falling. Black. Black. Black.