Chapter Five: Mariah

I sigh softly, then snap awake when there is a sudden jolt in the plane. Aw, come on, kid, right when I was just finally getting some peace and sleep? I don’t know how much more of this I can take...

Suddenly, the plane dipped, and everybody started screaming when the oxygen masks popped out of the roof. I grabbed mine and slipped it on, then scrambled to put my seatbelt on again. When did it come off? Even the kid stopped kicking my seat.

I could feel the plane losing altitude quickly; it felt like I was on an elevator that just broke and I was plummeting to my death. My stomach hitched, rising up to greet my throat. I was too scared to get sick, though I’m sure if I could have I would have.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as we plummeted towards the ocean. Without thinking, I start crying. I’ll never get to meet my dad. I’ll never get to find the one. I’ll never get to go camping again. So many things I’ll never get to do crossed my mind, but I couldn’t hold on to one of them for the life of me.

The only thing I could hold on to was my mother, the way her heart-shaped face looked, the way her voice sounded like she was always singing, even when she was tired. Everything about her took shape in my mind. Oh, what a time to think about her. All that did was make me cry harder because I know I’ll never get to see her again, either.

There was a baby screaming somewhere, but I barely noticed it - I was too busy crying my eyes out, breathing rapidly through my oxygen mask, as if I couldn’t get enough. I could feel myself being pushed back against the seat by the acceleration of the plane, like when a car takes off and you slam back against the seat and can’t go forward until you reach the same speed as the car.

But I know I won’t reach the same speed as the plane, not now and not ever, because as soon as I hit the ground, I’ll be dead. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it. And that guy snoring next to me, he’ll have no idea what killed him, or that he was calling me baby.

And then it came. There was the sound of trees being pulled down with the plane for a brief few seconds, then, the plane slammed into the ground. My head jerked forward and slammed into the chair in front of me, then everything went black.

Author's Note

Silent Wolf wrote this.