The Beta Cancri Queen

4 - Airplane

Hoshiko

It was all a dream.

I wasn't busy thinking too much about that though, as I was on a plane, and so I had enough worried, annoyed and sleepy pairs of eyes currently staring at me. I busied myself in burying my head under the seat in front of me, to fade out of the spotlight I had just created for myself. I pretended to be trying to pick up something that fell from the ground, as it could help shift away some of the glares but that just seemed to have the opposite effect - at least in my head. So then I sat up abruptly and attempted to groom the nest on my head and patted my forehead which was now a waterfall. My hands themselves were sweating so much. I was such a chaos. I could not breathe well. Was it the jolt of the dream or the current embarrassment I was facing? I bet my cheeks were so red. Hair seemed to be sticking to my face. I even drooled in my sleep!

Oh gosh. What an idiot you are, Hoshiko.

I would probably die from internal self-humiliation if I didn't stand up from my seat in the next few seconds. So I decided to go to the toilet, armed with a bunch of makeup and toiletries stuffed inside a pouch, thinking perhaps I could come of it looking like a human at least. I inhaled courage into my lungs, cleared away my self-consciousness and marched my way to the toilet - ignoring everyone. I don't know if anyone stared at me, but I didn't care anymore.

My sense of bravado however was short-lived when this flight attendant crossed my pathway just as I was about to touch the bathroom door. I froze there, staring at the blue pupils in front of me.

"Where are you going, miss?"

What was he doing? If a passenger on a plane stands up and walks along the aisle, they are most likely going to the toilet. I was annoyed by this question, which I would not have been if I wasn't already in this bedraggled state. Seeing how tidy his appearance was, made me the complete polar opposite. I felt so... self-conscious.

"Sorry?" I wanted to check if I heard correctly, and glanced sideways to see if someone was standing behind me.

He laughed lightly and said, "What I meant was... this toilet is occupied and we are serving food right now." He then pointed to the food trolley that was rolling somewhere in the distance.

I couldn't help but glare and stomp back to my seat.

Two or three minutes later, I heard the toilet door at the back click open and shut. A man whizzed past the aisle, and for some reason, he seemed familiar, although I only saw his back. Of course, I forgot about this quickly, and I immediately went to the toilet before anyone else could.

I closed the toilet seat lid and sat on it, closing my eyes. And then that dream flashed through my mind. That villain was so cool. That dream felt like an action-thriller movie, and he was the hitman for sure - seeing how much of a clean cut that was, one could tell that he was a professional assassin. I just didn't like how the movie ended. Everything felt so real. Why do I feel this way whenever I sleep? All the emotions, pain, injuries I feel with such force, but seem to wake up with my body intact. Did that dream mean something? Sometimes, events happen just the way I imagine them in my head.

A sudden hint of turbulence occurred and the earthquake seemed to shake my brain back into its place... What was I doing? I opened my eyes to see a bizarre sink in front of me. Airplanes are weird, I thought to myself as the shiny silver tap stared back at me, giving me a squashed reflection of myself.

Back to reality, I flushed my thoughts down the toilet and began my glam-up procedure. Once I was finished, I scurried back to my seat, but something was clearly wrong - I could not see any food being served anymore! And to add to my horror, when I looked at my seat, I found nothing on my seat tray. I was so hungry.

"Stupid Belladonna." I muttered through my teeth, as I sat down, next to a girl who tapped her long, sharp acrylic nails against her phone screen, playing a 'bubble-shooter' game. This spoiled brat was unfortunately my cousin, Belladonna Yume. "Did you do this on purpose?" I asked, this time louder so she could hear me.

"Wait... I must complete this level." she said, not bothering to glance up. "Oh no, I am running out of lives." Thankfully she had slept through that whole embarrassing situation earlier, despite all the noise that I made, but she was very much awake now.

I rolled my eyes really hard, while she had hers glued to her phone. "Why?" I asked.

"Why... what?" she said and then had the audacity to tut. "You know by the way, that flight attendant who talked to you was so hot. Did you see his hair and skin? He looked like a model. What did he say? I should have--"

"Why didn't you keep a food tray for me?" I interrupted. She did this on purpose, knowing that I didn't have breakfast this morning because I felt sick. I could see her tray filled the empty wrappers and scrunched up plastic, from the food that she devoured very quickly. I hoped that karma would hit her hard soon.

She tutted again. "I don't know, forget it and stop it, you are adding stress to my skin." Shaking her head, she then put her phone in her Gucci bag, which she had newly bought at the Portuguese airport before our flight, and closed her eyes. "Excuse me, I need to continue my beauty sleep."

I sighed. I sighed again because there was no purpose in arguing against this obnoxious being, and I was too tired to deal with anything or anyone - even with my own thoughts and self.

Then I remembered the horror movie I had downloaded to watch on the plane. Before I could play the movie, suddenly, I seemed to have this pain in my forehead and nose bridge that was sharp and throbbing. It was like needles were clinging to my skin and then snapping one by one, the pain lingered there for a while. I tried to keep my head still but hissed in defeat, giving in to the throbbing spreading to the sides of my face and dissipating near my jaw. The change in pressure must have messed up my sinus.

Well, we must be landing soon.