My eyes shot open and I sat bolt upright. I wondered where on Earth I could be. When my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I realised I wasn't on Earth at all. I was in the air. I looked to my left and out of a long, stretching window - I was in some kind of small plane. I blinked slowly, hoping I was having a hallucination - but I remained in that leather seat, on a plane.
"You're scared?" A young man's voice came from beside me. "I'm not surprised."
I turned my head, and was faced with a man who I presumed was in his early twenties. He had a hoodie pulled over his head, piercing blue eyes and brown hair which curled around the sides of his hood. He also had plenty of freckles.
"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself!" He smiled, as if waking up on a random plane was totally normal. "I'm Aris."
I stared at him in silence, hoping I was in a very vivid dream.
"You might recognise my voice and name." He raised an eyebrow, but I furrowed mine in confusion. I did know him from somewhere - it was on the tip of my tongue - but I just couldn't remember.
"Anyway, wanna meet the other guys?"
I looked around the plane, which was painted completely dark blue. There were four booths, two on each side. Each had two opposite-facing leather seats - me and Aris were in one, and in each of the others there were two men.
"This is Newt..." Directly behind Aris, a skinny blonde boy turned around and gave me a brief, expressionless nod. "... and that's Minho." Sat in the corner, staring out of the window with folded arms, was a tall, Korean brown-haired man - everyone on the plane looked around the same age.
"Then in the far corner there's Jack and Dylan." Aris explained, and I looked across into a booth where two black-haired men sat, yawning and staring out of the window.
"And next to us is Ricky and Liam." Ricky had light brown hair and was fairly skinny, and Liam was a blonde, who slumped in his seat, asleep. They both had deep brown eyes.
"There's also Thomas, but..." Aris' friendly smile faded, "we don't really know where he is right now."
I focused my gaze back on Aris, who was watching me inquisitively.
"What's your name?"
I sat and stared at him quietly - I couldn't muster up the courage to utter a single word. Then, just as I was distracted from the situation, we heard a large sucking sound, followed by Minho groaning. I looked across to see what was going on, and to my horror, he was being sucked right out of his circular window! The last thing I saw was his feet disappearing outside and the window rolling back up again. I was in sheer shock and wanted to help him, but for some reason everyone else sat silently and motionless as if nothing happened. I looked at Minho's empty seat and thought to myself...
Who will be sucked next?
