Flight United 999

CHAPTER 2 - FLIGHT FEAR

 

 

 

He couldn’t have read my mind. He couldn’t have heard everything I said. But then again, Matthew murmured as he proceeded through the gateway to the plane.

Kevin noticed that Matthew had gone quiet and introspective. This bothered the older Sterling. Unable to hide it, he tapped his sibling. “Hey Matthew, what’s up with you?”

“Hate to be a drag, but I just don’t feel comfortable about this flight—something does not feel right,” Matthew replied less rashly. At this point, he was trying to reveal to his brother that he was not being unnecessarily difficult.

“You really need to chillax,” Kevin replied.

“Didn’t you notice,” Matthew paused and leaned closer to his brother. “He didn’t even check our hand luggage. I am telling you that something is way off the mark...”

“Oh! Come on! You are not going to let a security examination ruin this whole vacation, are you?” Kevin looked ahead as he asked the question.

The back-and-forth toggle they had had with this topic was tiring for him.

“Kev, I am seriously getting one of those unnerving vibes again. You trusted my senses in the past when our lives were threatened from criminality. But I guess stuff based on the spooks is too unrealistic. You may not take what I say seriously, but I certainly do,” Matthew pointed out.

“I know you got our backs but what you’re worrying about, it’s probably nothing,” replied Kevin.

“Let’s just hope so. Because I don’t think I can…we can turn back now,” Matthew retreated. Whatever he was feeling, he was not going to mention it anymore. As he walked through the gateway, he began to recall an illustrational visage from the dream he had the night before.

Faintly, a more wholesome image aligned in his mind. He remembered it as if it were the grim reaper swinging his scythe towards him but the event that culminated to that, which had earlier eluded him, began to come together. Last night’s dream definitely has something to do with this flight, he whispered to himself.

In a snap, the complete spectacle of the dream Matthew had experienced formed in his mind. He could deduce what happened more accurately than before.

The night prior, the two brothers headed to bed to have a good sleep in preparation for the trip. Kevin slept well, however, Matthew did not.

When Matthew slept, he had a dream of an airplane in flight. All of a sudden, the plane exploded, falling to the ground in a ball of fire and landing amidst the greenery of trees and shrubs, lost in the forests of nowhere. In that dream, Matthew found himself looking through the plane-wreck. He found bodies, contorted, mangled, and bloodied. It was impossible for anybody to be identified. Then, a dark entity spawned right in his front while the tragic occurrence in the background faded. As the reaper was about to reach Matthew, he woke up. Weirdly, he felt his back landing on the bed as if he had fallen on to it. It led him to question whether he had been afloat in air whilst lucid. He was panting, sweating profusely and his heart raced tirelessly.

There were a lot of questions on his mind, but at that time, he just wanted to know how he levitated; how he was able to lift off from his bed and suspend in the air. The room window was the first place he headed after the experience. He had to make sure his surroundings were safe. Staring into the dark night, no answer seemed to come to Matthew. All he could do was stay awake after the dream. He was eerie about shutting his eyes again unsure of what could happen next.

Lost in the reverie of the horrifying dream’s aftermath, the quick footsteps behind Matthew restored his mind to the present. He turned around to see who it was at the gateway. Matthew smirked and mused to himself, oh the staring girl.

Kevin noticed that his brother had drifted off once again; lost in the complicated thoughts that overtook his mind. “Stop spacing out!” Kevin jabbed him with his elbow.

A startled Matthew responded, “Wait, what?”

They had entered the plane and were given specific instructions to follow by the two air hostesses.

Kevin frowned. “We need to find our seats, but I forgot our seat numbers. And I can’t be bothered to bring out the tickets. Please tell me you can remember?”

Matthew responded, “Oh! Yeah…Err…it should be 9E and 9F, I guess.”

“Oh yeah. That was it. Now let’s find it.” Kevin replied. Then he moved ahead of his brother in search of their seats.

Based on the design of the aircraft, the seat 9E and 9F would be located to the right side where three sets of seats are labelled D to F. On the left side of the plane was the A to C section. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find their seating as the plane was a standard size with one aisle separating both sections.

Back inside the airport, just before the terminal gateway closes for the plane’s takeoff, the clerk at the check-in point prior to the gateway itself can see a young black male approaching her desk, running towards her and shouting, “Please hold up.” Arriving in front of her, he placed his palms on his knees, taking a squat position, he hung his head down, panting, trying to catch his breath. “Forgive me, ma’am. I am here to board on the United 999.”

“And I was just about to close up too,” she sighed.

The man handed his passport to her, she checked his name on the database and confirmed that he was fit to get on the plane.

“Mr. Segas,” she continued, “You are quite lucky. If you had been another minute late, you would have missed your flight.”

He threw a flirty smile at the attendant. “Thanks. I guess luck is on my side.”

The attendant responded with a cold smile. “Seems that way. Have a nice vacation.”

Segas made his way through the security scanner. Going through the gateway, he headed into the plane. Let’s get this show on the road, he muttered to himself.

After passing through the first class segment, Kevin and Matthew finally found their seats situated at the front row of economy class. Closely behind the two brothers was Morven, who too was in search for her seat.

Kevin tapped his brother and pointed at what they were searching for. “There we are and still empty too.”

Matthew replied, “That’s good stuff. We can avoid all that swapping seats malarkey.”

Kevin added, “Yeah, I can’t be dealing with all that mumbo-jumbo.”

Matthew agreed, “I hear ya.”

Kevin and Matthew settled in their seats, just beside each other.

“This is going to be a long flight. Man, I wish we still had our old game consoles,” Kevin paused. “Remember when we were younger; we could literally play video games all day and night.”

“Yeah I remember. I also remember that when it came to gaming, I was fighting king,” Matthew cheered.

“Bro! You were literally the fighting king—not just in gaming,” Kevin teased.

For the older Sterling, he was glad that they could get away from their normal lives. In recent years, they had hardly had time to discuss anything else aside from their personal endeavors. However, the development of the conversation awoke the sleeping child in Kevin. “You know, there will probably be a good arcade that we could go check out at The Neo Dome. Like old times huh?”

“I am game for that,” Matthew replied. As much as he looked forward to it, he still had fears in his mind, but now he and his sibling had already reached a point of no return. If terror was around the corner, whatever happened from then on would happen, and there was little he could do about it.

Morven walked past the brothers upon heading to her seat. Their interaction was captivating and it distracted her into a nervous state. On getting to where she was supposed to sit, to her surprise her seat was already occupied by no other than Keiysha, the woman she had briefly interacted with at the security check.

Morven was not the loud type; in terms of the minor things in life, she preferred being denied of what was rightfully hers rather than making a ruckus on the services she wanted.

Keiysha looked at Morven as she stood silently by her side yet to speak up. The blond was more than aware of what was happening. “I take it that I am sat on your seat.”

“Well...yeah. Unless the seat number is not 11C,” Morven teased.

“Do you mind me sitting here? I have personal reasons that I do not want to disclose,” Keiysha pleaded.

“Well, I guess it’s no big deal,” Morven replied. “I’ll just sit wherever you were meant to be seated.”

“Thank you. My seat number is… excuse me.” Before Keiysha could finish talking, Morven had already turned around, looking for a suitable place to get seated.

As Morven walked back in the direction she came, she found that the seat beside Matthew was empty. Seeing the brothers that had caught her eye, the settlement there was a must. It would be fun if I could sit with them, she said to herself as she approached where they were seated.

“This is going to be the best vacation ever,” says Kevin, who stared out of...