The Ghosts in You (A Zak Bagans Fanfic)

Chapter 1

It was a cool, December afternoon. Sara waited in line for her Southwest flight from San Antonio to Las Vegas. Her favorite band, Duran Duran, was set to play a show on the 30th at The Cosmopolitan Hotel. Sara was meeting up with a few girlfriends for a few nights of fun – and Duran Duran – before heading home to Los Angeles.

Sara was in boarding group A, which meant she would be one of the first allowed onto the plane. She was already feeling anxious and by the sound of their announcements, this was going to be a full flight.

She was not a good flier by any means – in fact, she hated it. But she'd become accustomed to it. She felt more in control and less claustrophobic any time she could score a window seat away from the back of the plane. She always tried for a seat anywhere from the wings forward, and always at a window, to see the outside – even if that view was above 35,000 feet.

In a way, it was somewhat hypnotic. The clouds gave the illusion of billowy cotton. It was calming too, at least until the cloud cover broke and she could see just how high she was. When that happened, Sara focused on the horizon and observed the curvature of the Earth.

Sara was answering text messages just as they called her group for boarding. She clicked off her phone, tucked it into her jacket pocket and tried to prepare herself mentally for the nearly three hour flight ahead. She thanked God she had her iPad with plenty of music, movies and books to keep her mind occupied and off of the fact that she was in a flying Pringles can. Now if only she could score that window seat!

As she boarded the plane, she could see that nearly every window seat was occupied already, save for a few at the rear of the plane. Not happening, Sara thought.

But there was one window seat still free, right in the front row, on the right hand side. Sara sighed and reluctantly took the window seat at the very front of the plane. She disliked not having a row of seats in front of her. When the turbulence kicked in, that extra row of seats made it all the easier for her to hide her fear of flying.

She'd been seated in the front row on a previous flight, when the turbulence kicked in big time. She had grabbed her armrests, closed her eyes and tried to breathe. The gentleman seated next to her had on a Jet Blue captain's uniform. He asked if she was okay, and she explained her fear of flying. In turn, he explained the ins and outs of turbulence and that there had not been a documented case of a plane coming down due to turbulence alone. He also let her in on the knowledge that turbulence would always be the worst when flying over mountain ranges in extreme heat – something about the heat reflecting off the mountains and pockets of air. So when flying, Sara always tried to fly in the early mornings or late afternoon or evenings. It helped a little bit, she thought, but there was always some turbulence.

Sara took her seat next to the window. She set both her iPhone and iPad to airplane mode, and plugged her headphones into her phone. She was staring out her window, watching the ground crew prep the flight, when a handsome stranger asked if the seats next to her were occupied.