But The World Keeps Turning

Chapter 9: Fade Out

When Aubrey opened her eyes, she found herself in the plane again. The plane had just crashed. Water flowed down in the plane in slow-motion. Seconds passed like minutes before Aubrey realized what was happening. She needed to get out. Quickly. She unclipped her seatbelt and climbed over the chairs on her row to the walkway. On the other side of the footpath, she saw a woman with blond hair, still buckled in her seat. A huge, deep cut covered her face in a diagonal. Her face was severely damaged. A piece of glass had struck her eyeball, right in the center. Her jaw was broken and hang in an unnatural position below her face. The blood from more cuts in her head covered her face completely, making her face almost unrecognizable. But everyone would recognize a friend, even in such condition.

"JESSICA!" she screamed as she tugged at her seatbelt. Jessica's head fell to the side, her lifeless eyes looking at Aubrey as if blaming her. Aubrey put her hand over her mouth as she felt her supper coming up.

"No no no. NO. NO! JESSICA!"

She shook the blonde, but she didn't wake up. Aubrey's trembling hands and clothes where covered by the dark blood from Jessica. Aubrey looked at her hands, panicking. She tried to rub the blood on the chair in front of them and on the ceiling. On anything as long as it was not on her hands. She tried to calm down and to even her breaths, before she would faint. She was sweating profusely, her vision was blurry. She looked at Jessica for the last time, before running towards the exit. It was then when she noticed that the exit was blocked by the enormous amount of water that entered the cabin.

"SHIT" she cried.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around, slowly. Standing in front of her, was Denise. Her eyes were big, she was crying inaudible. Suddenly, she stopped crying. Leaving the two in a complete silence. Even the stream of water had stopped bouldering. The world just stood still for a moment.

Slowly, very slowly, Denise moved her head to her shoulder, showing the right side of her neck. She moved her head further and further and further and further, before a loud snap erupted from the breaking bone in her neck. Denise kept staring at Aubrey as she moved her head even further, causing the skin to rip where the fracture was located. Dark blood streamed out of the wound, covering her neckline and collarbones. The blood streamed further down, drenching her clothes.

Aubrey couldn't move. She was frozen. She couldn't think. She heard a belt unclip and heard footsteps approaching her from behind but she couldn't turn around. All she could do was wait for Jessica to walk towards Denise and turning around, showing her blood covered face. The piece of glass was still stuck in her eye and moved frantically as she used her eye to look around. Jessica tried to smirk, but her jaw still hang like a rag doll below her face. Her teeth were showing.

"Please..."she said, as well as she could without her lower jaw. Denise smirked as she finished the sentence.

"...Never leave me..."

Aubrey yelped as she shot up, paining heavily. Her back was drenched with sweat. She looked around, checking her surroundings for any signs of Jessica and Denise, but they weren't there. What a terrible dream. But she knew that it was based on actual events. Her hands were trembling as she rubbed them.

"Are you okay?" Beca's voice trembled. She couldn't sleep and jumped when she heard Aubrey scream. The rest of the group didn't seem to have noticed it. Beca shook Chloe off her and moved to Aubrey, taking her hand in hers.

Aubrey nodded. "I had a bad dream."

"Dreams won't hurt us." Beca said. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It was about Denise and Jessica..."

Beca nodded, understanding.

"They..." Aubrey started crying. Beca rubbed her back.