Roads To Hell: A Horror Anthology

Part 10 - Red-Eye

Henry woke halfway through the flight, sometime in the middle of the night, with a sick feeling in his stomach. He wanted to blame the congealed pasta he'd consumed after they'd taken off. In-flight meals were always a risk for his sensitive stomach. It gurgled and Henry glanced around, sure that he'd woken the whole flight.

But everyone seemed to be sleeping or reading. There were a few empty seats and Henry frowned. He'd noticed several children board the flight, but they all seemed to be out of their seats. They probably couldn't sleep and begged the crew to let them into the cockpit. He caught one of the mothers' eyes, she was chewing her thumbnail down to the quick. For a moment she seemed distraught, then she glanced away.

Shifting in his seat, Henry pulled out a file from his briefcase. If he couldn't sleep, he may as well do some work. His boss was sending him to some godforsaken pit in the middle of nowhere, Western Australia.

"There have been some developments," Reg had said and put him on the red-eye for that very night.

Henry had tried to weasel his way out of it. But the insurance company was riding his superior's arse, calling for a senior analyst to investigate. Apparently, the miners had found something. And there was a collapse. Or there was a collapse in the mine shaft and then they found something. Reports coming out of the area were inconsistent. Some miners had been injured and perhaps a few were still down there. No one had heard from the overseer. All Henry had, other than the initial survey report and updates on the mine expansion, was a panicked phone call and a few grainy photographs taken on someone's smartphone.

"What the hell did those idiot boys do?" he whispered.

Reading the reports line by line and making notes in the margin must have taken him an hour. Turbulence jostled the plane and his pencil jumped, ruining a cursive 's'. There was a burst of static, but it appeared the captain's microphone wasn't working. They hadn't heard from her since take off. He looked up, eyes burning from straining to read and write under the pitiful overhead light. Rubbing his eyes, Henry shoved the file into the seat pocket in front of him. He needed a break.

He turned to the window and wrestled the screen up so he could see outside. He looked down, pressing his nose against the cool glass. Below the plane, a thick cloud layer blocked the view of the desert they were surely flying over. The night sky tinted everything a pale shade of blue. He looked up. Squinted. The stars seemed so dim, so far away. The sky was just a deep shadow, pinpricked with distant light. Shouldn't they be able to see more stars?

He sat back in his seat and looked around. A few more seats were empty and a muffled sobbing was coming from the bathroom. Henry ignored his protesting bladder and decided to leave whoever it was be. They probably got anxiety on planes. The person sitting next to him was gone. Maybe it was them? The girl did seem nervous during the meal.

His eyes roved the plane and he peered down the aisles. So many seats empty. Where were the people? A third of the plane couldn't fit into the cockpit! What was going on? He spied a stewardess making her way down the aisle and waved her over. She looked down on him serenely.

"Excuse me..." he trailed off. Her eyes were very dark, but the blue light from his window made them glow red. He lost his nerve. "Could I just get, uh, some soda water?" Henry patted his stomach and she understood.

"Of course."

She came back with his soda water a few minutes later. Henry thanked her and sipped it while staring out the window. The stewardess made her way up the aisle and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He saw stop to speak to another passenger, leaning down to look at them. He saw her wrap her hand around their upper arm and pull them to their feet like they weighed nothing. The passenger had a look of confusion and terror on his face as he tried to pull away. The stewardess lead him to the front of the plane, shut the curtain on the crew area and he disappeared. He never returned to his seat.

Despite the soda water, Henry's lips were dry. Wrinkled hands shaking he pressed on the video screen in front of him. It flickered to life but nothing seemed to work. All the entertainment – movies, television programs – was just static. He pressed on the map, eager to know how close they were. The cartoon image of the plane was in the middle of the screen, surrounded by nothing but a black void. There was no distance to destination, no location.

The engines were silent, which accounted for the tomb-like quiet of the plane. All Henry could hear was the sound of people breathing and shifting in their seats. Chewing their nails and tapping their feet. Henry wondered how long the flight would be. Only as long as he was alive, he supposed. Somehow that was very funny and he had to stifle his hysterical giggles.

Hours passed. The flight should have landed but it kept flying. More and more people disappeared, taken when Henry wasn't looking or when he looked out the window to count the stars. They kept disappearing too. The plane was cold and you could tell who was still in their seat by the fog that formed when they breathed. It didn't seem to affect the crew though.

Everyone left went to sleep or looked around, scared but silent. Half of them were hoping it was a bad dream. The rest were terrified but too polite to say anything. And red-eyed stewardesses roamed the aisles, choosing their next sacrifice. 

... 

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed...and that it doesn't make you scared to fly!