Leaving Dreamland [Book One]

1~ Back to England

 As I stepped off the plane, the cool air from the terminal rushed past me, making me shiver. I began to walk to the baggage claim, hoping that this time the airport hadn't lost my luggage. The London Heathrow Airport seemed much more crowded than I remember it being. Huh. Maybe things have just changed since I've been here last. After all, the last time I was here was nine years ago when I was, well, nine. The thought made me shudder. No. Now was not the time to think about this. I couldn't, I wouldn't. But despite my efforts to stop it, the images of that one day flashed through my mind and I became frozen in place, unable to function.

Nine years ago, I had been here in the London Heathrow Airport with my father, waiting for our plane to go back to the US. We had gone to visit my mother, who had to stay here in London due to her job. We still had an hour to kill before we could board the plane, so we decided to check out a couple of the many little shops that were scattered around.

"Shy, come over here! I need to tell you something!" my dad had said.

"What is it, Daddy?" I'd asked, trotting over to where he was standing in front of a magazine display.

"I have to run an errand real quick. You can look around in the shops around here for a bit, but in about 25 minutes you should head back over to the gate. I'll even give you a bit of money so you can buy yourself something if you'd like. If I'm not back by the time they start boarding, still get on the plane without me, and I'll meet you there. Okay?"

"Sure!" I'd agreed, and he handed me €10 and my boarding pass to get on the plane.

"Oh, and Shyler?"

"Yes, Daddy?"

"I...I love you," he said, and I could hear the sorrow and regret in his voice. Back when I was nine, I didn't really think about what had caused that sudden grief, and I didn't see the connection between everything that he had told me. Even now, it still sort of puzzles me, although I do understand it a little more than I did then.

"I love you too, Daddy!" I smiled, and he knelt down and hugged me tightly, stroking my wavy, light brown hair. He shrank backwards a bit and I saw his electric blue eyes stare back into my own, yet again having a gloomy and regretful expression.

"Don't miss the plane, now," he reminded me, and then he waved goodbye and walked away. And that was the last I saw of him. I did as he said and went on the plane without him, and soon enough the pilots announced that they were leaving the gate and heading to the runway.

"Wait! No, Daddy said he'd be here! We have to wait for him! DADDY!" I'd cried, but the stewardess just came over, telling me to calm down and be quiet, as I was disturbing the other passengers.

As the plane ride progressed, I couldn't stop thinking about my father. What had happened to him? Had he not made it back in time? Would they not let him on? Could he have been in trouble? But then my thoughts brought me to something else: Did he deliberately abandon me? No. I couldn't think that. It wasn't true. He wouldn't have done that to me. But the whole plane ride, it was eating away at me, trying to get my attention and make me believe it. But maybe... No. No, just no. I refused to believe it.

When I arrived at the airport in New York, I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. After all, my dad was still in London somewhere, and I was there, alone at the New York airport. But as I got off the plane, I found my grandma waiting for me.

She came up and gave me a big hug, and ignoring my tear-streaked face, and asked, "How was your flight, pumpkin?"

"Why isn't Daddy here?" I'd asked.

"What are you talking about, dear?" she said, seeming genuinely puzzled.

"But... I thought...."

"Come on, we'd better get you home. It sounds like you're very tired from your trip."

And so, with that, I went to my grandma's house and lived there. It was like nothing had ever happened, and that my dad had never been real. At night, I always thought about him and where he was, imagining him in the Amazon Rainforest and Antarctica and the Himalayas and dozens of other exotic locations to keep me of thinking of the bad things that could have happened to him. I never thought of that dreaded theory that I had come up with on the plane again, as I didn't want to torture myself with things like that. Whenever I brought up the topic of my dad with my grandma, she never seemed to know what I was talking about, just muttering something about me needing more sleep and wild imaginations. The same thing happened when I talked to my mom on the phone; she thought I was crazy, and that I needed to quell my over-excited imagination. After a while, I eventually stopped talking about it all together, as no one was giving me any answers. I just lived a normal life, doing normal things, going to a normal school, pretending like nothing happened. And now, at age eighteen, I was finally able to save up enough money to visit my mom, and now--

I snapped back into reality. What I needed to do was go get my bags from the baggage claim like a normal person, not stand around in the middle of the airport, reliving old memories that would haunt me forever and always. I continued walking towards the baggage claim slowly, looking around at all the restaurants to see if there was anything that I could get to eat. There were lots of choices, but none of them really appealed to me at the moment. Oh well, there were plenty of places that I could go to get something to eat after I left the airport. I wasn't that hungry anyways, as I had eaten a snack on the plane.

As I looked around some more, I knew that something felt different. There seemed to be way too many people at the airport, and that was saying something. They were all crowding around near one of the gates, and I was trying to figure out what was going on. I heard little snip-its of conversations, where people were talking about the Nile River and pain and a style of some sort. They seemed to talk about some other things, but I couldn't quite understand it with all of noise they were making. Something like Tommy's son and "my lick", maybe? Hmm. It seemed pretty odd to me, but these people seemed pretty excited and intense about something, and I didn't want to stick around for any more weirdness. I had to squeeze through the mob of over 200 people that were crowded around the gate, and let me tell you, it was not an easy task. When I finally got through the mob, I decided to sit down and rest for a bit. After recovering, I got back up and started heading towards the baggage claim again.

I had barely gotten more than a few meters away from the crowd when, all of a sudden, I felt something yank my arm and send me tumbling towards the ground behind a nearby sunglasses display. On the way down, my head smacked against part of the display, which instantly sent a throbbing pain shooting through my skull. I moaned in pain and looked up to see what had been the cause of my injury, only to find a guy about my age looking back at me with his bright blue eyes full of worry and concern. His brown hair was tousled in such a way that it made it look as if he could have woken up with it already like that, and yet it was still incredibly amazing. He reached out and grabbed my shoulders to steady me, and for a second I forgot all about the throbbing in my head and stared in astonishment at what I was seeing.

Oh my god. I guess it wasn't the Nile River or pain or a style that the people were talking about after all. Nor were they talking about Tommy's son or "my lick". It was...

"Oh, shit, are you ok?" asked Louis.

...Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik. That's right, One Direction is at the airport.