Look, I know this is going to sound crazy. Maybe it is crazy, I don’t know. I just… I had to tell someone, you know? Maybe you can help me.
It was a few months ago that this happened. I, uh, I think. Time is kind of weird for me after everything, so I’m not… I’m not really sure. Maybe this was months ago, maybe years. Maybe it never actually happened and I just dreamt it all up one night.
Right, I should probably tell you what happened. Uh, that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Uh, okay. So. Uh, where do I start…?
Um, okay. So, my brother was going to get married soon, and I’d never met his fiance, so the plan was for me to go on a kind of vacation with him to get to know him. Oh, uh, my brother’s name is Liam MacDaniel, and his fiance is Kurtis… uh, Kurtis… you know, I’m realizing now that I never actually got Kurtis’s last name. It’s only in retrospect, I guess, that you notice all the things like this, all the little things that were wrong with someone or something that just escaped your attention. And then, by the time you realize all of this, it’s already too late, and everything’s just gone all wrong.
I didn’t even realize Kurtis existed until Liam sent me the wedding invitation. I have no clue how long they’d been together or why Liam didn’t tell me sooner - we’d never kept secrets from each other before, and I couldn’t figure out why Liam would change so drastically as to hide things from me. At the time, I chose to not let it bother me.
Apparently, Kurtis lived in London, and, because Liam lives in America, they’d been maintaining a long-distance relationship for a while. They’d met in person a couple of times, but when all this happened, Kurtis was back in Britain. Basically, the plan was for me to leave Britain with Kurtis and cross the ocean to America. There, we’d spend a day getting to know each other as we traveled from the airport in Orlando to Liam’s place in Miami. At the time, I was pretty excited. From what Liam had told me about Kurtis, he seemed like a really cool person who had a lot in common with me, so I was looking forward to meeting him.
I met him in the airport about an hour and a half before our plane was scheduled to take off. He was tall, four or five inches above six feet, and had brown hair that messily hung around the tops of his ears. As I approached, I noticed that he had misty grey eyes, one darker than the other.
He waved at me. “Hey! You’re Avery, right? Liam’s sibling?"
I nodded. “Yeah. Uh, Kurtis, right?”
“Yup,” he responded. “C’mon, we have some time. What kinds of things do you do for fun?”
It turned out that Liam had been right; Kurtis and I did have a lot in common. Apparently, he worked as a writer, although he told me he hadn’t published any books yet. Liam was one of the few people he was close to, and I couldn’t really judge him for that. It’s not like I have many friends, either. I was surprised at how much he seemed to value his alone time; even for an introvert like me, his obsession with being alone was almost scary. But other than that, he seemed like a perfectly normal person, and I actually quite enjoyed our conversation.
Everything seemed totally fine and normal as we boarded the plane, and it’s important to note that the plane was packed with people. I’m sure every seat was full. There were many people on that plane, I know that. I could swear that plane was full.
But where could they all have gone?
We’d been flying for about two hours when Kurtis stood up and walked away from me without saying a word. I assumed he was going to the bathroom, but as time dragged on, and as the realization that he was going the wrong way struck me, I grew more and more unsettled. I had decided to go after him, so I stood up and-
And I can’t tell you what happened, or how it happened. One minute, the plane was full of people, but as I stepped away from my seat, it was as if they’d all vanished into thin air. I was entirely and painfully alone.
No, not quite alone, I thought. The plane was still flying, so the pilots had to still be there. They had to be.
The door to the cabin was locked, and no matter how hard I slammed my body into it, it stayed shut. I screamed, pounding and kicking at the door, hoping the pilot on the other side would hear me and open it, but there was nothing.
I turned around and Kurtis was standing a few feet away from me, head tilted slightly to the side. Relief washed over me - finally, here was another person! I wasn’t entirely alone after all!
“Kurtis!” I called. “What’s going on?”
He didn’t respond at first, and I wondered if somehow he hadn’t heard me. Then his face split into a wide grin, and I felt fear clutch at my chest.
“Uh, Kurtis?” I tried again.
“Avery,” he said casually, as if he was just making small talk. “What’s wrong?”
“What?” I snapped. “What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’? What do you think is wrong?”
“If it’s any consolation, you’re likely not going to die,” he said, as if that fixed anything.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I hissed at him.
“I had thought that would be obvious.”
“Well, it’s not.”
Kurtis stared at me, then sighed. “I’ll leave you to it, I think. I’ll be seeing you later.” Then he turned and… and, well, he just disappeared. It wasn’t as if he faded away or anything; he was just there one moment and gone the next, just like all the other people on the plane.
I don’t know how long I was there, trapped within the cold metal prison of the plane. It felt like a lifetime, but that can’t be possible. I never got hungry or thirsty or tired, and so I couldn’t mark the time that had passed by when I ate or when I slept.
I saw Kurtis a couple times. He didn’t speak to me again, just stood and stared, head tilted slightly to the side. It was unnerving, and after realizing I wasn’t going to get any kind of explanation out of him, I tried my best to ignore his presence. It was easier than I’d expected. Strangely, even when I was looking right at him, even when I was talking to him, it didn’t really feel like he was there with me. If anything, seeing him made me feel even more alone.
I cried a lot. I had no clue how long I’d be trapped, or if I was ever going to get out. Clearly, this was all somehow Kurtis’s fault, even though I doubt I’ll ever know what he did. All I knew was the crushing feeling of loneliness that pressed down on my mind and the sinking fear in the pit of my stomach that I may be trapped here forever, that I’d never get to see Liam’s smile, or hear his laugh, or get to hug him again. I’d felt alone before - I’d never had many friends, even as a kid, and I wasn’t exactly on the best of terms with my parents - but this was a different kind of loneliness, the kind that feels hopeless and empty and inescapable.
It hurts, you know, being alone like that for so long. It’s almost a physical ache, deep in the bones and throbbing through your veins. Sometimes, the pain pulls your breath out of your lungs and presses hard against your chest, leaving you gasping through your tears on the floor. But even that isn’t as bad as the pain in your mind, the depression and the confusion and the fear blending together into a messy, suffocating mix of emotions. I couldn’t think, feeling as if my brain was swimming in some kind of thick fog.
I pounded my fists against the walls until my knuckles were bruised and bloody, clawed at my arms and face until I tore out large chunks of skin, and pulled at my hair until clumps were being ripped out of my scalp. I screamed until it felt like I was swallowing barbed wire. Only one thought repeated over and over and over again in my head: I have to get out, I have to get out, I have togetout, Ihavetogetout, IhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetout-
I was able to force open one of the plane doors. I… I don’t remember how I got it open, my only memories being laying on the floor one moment, then standing by the open door with wind roaring around me the next. And I… I jumped out. You have to understand, I had to get out of that awful place, no matter the cost! I… I had no other choice!
I don’t remember passing out, just waking up in an American hospital, Liam at my side. Kurtis was standing by the door behind Liam, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked when he saw me stirring. I didn’t respond, I wasn’t even sure my voice still worked, instead, I just weakly slumped against my brother, hugging him as tightly as I could.
According to Liam - or more accurately, according to what Liam told me that Kurtis told him - I’d just suddenly passed out on the plane, and had been in some kind of coma since. No one could figure out what had caused it, and they didn’t believe me when I tried to explain what really happened. I… I swear it really happened, though. It all felt too real to just be a dream, right? There’s no way this could…
Saying this all out loud, I’m realizing just how crazy this all sounds. I just… I can’t have just made all that up, not when I swear Kurtis gave me a sinister, knowing smile when our eyes met during the wedding.
Yeah, the wedding. Uh, even though I told Liam what had happened, he still went through with the wedding. I suppose it could have been a nice event, but I spent the whole time watching Kurtis, waiting for him to show some sign that everything on the plane had been real, that I wasn’t just making this all up. His casual, friendly facade never slipped, of course, and I just spent the whole night in a sour mood. After the wedding, I went back to Britain as soon as possible. On a ship, of course. I doubt I’ll ever want to fly in a plane again.
I don’t want to be alone again, either. It’s… I’ve never felt afraid like this. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to understand that fear, the terror that, at any time, I could turn around, and the… and all the people would just be gone. And I have a sinking feeling that if that happened again, I wouldn’t be able to escape. Kurtis and that plane haunt me in my dreams, and even when I’m in a room that’s full of people, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m entirely alone. I used to love spending time on my own, but now, when it’s just me in a room all by myself, all I can feel is the crushing fear of loneliness.
Are you even really here? Or am I just talking to nobody at all? I hope you’re real, of course. I hope you can help me. I don’t think I have much time left, not when the line between my nightmares and real life is getting more and more blurred every day. Perhaps this is all just a hallucination, and I’m still trapped up in the sky, still hopelessly alone.
It was a few months ago that this happened. I, uh, I think. Time is kind of weird for me after everything, so I’m not… I’m not really sure. Maybe this was months ago, maybe years. Maybe it never actually happened and I just dreamt it all up one night.
Right, I should probably tell you what happened. Uh, that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Uh, okay. So. Uh, where do I start…?
Um, okay. So, my brother was going to get married soon, and I’d never met his fiance, so the plan was for me to go on a kind of vacation with him to get to know him. Oh, uh, my brother’s name is Liam MacDaniel, and his fiance is Kurtis… uh, Kurtis… you know, I’m realizing now that I never actually got Kurtis’s last name. It’s only in retrospect, I guess, that you notice all the things like this, all the little things that were wrong with someone or something that just escaped your attention. And then, by the time you realize all of this, it’s already too late, and everything’s just gone all wrong.
I didn’t even realize Kurtis existed until Liam sent me the wedding invitation. I have no clue how long they’d been together or why Liam didn’t tell me sooner - we’d never kept secrets from each other before, and I couldn’t figure out why Liam would change so drastically as to hide things from me. At the time, I chose to not let it bother me.
Apparently, Kurtis lived in London, and, because Liam lives in America, they’d been maintaining a long-distance relationship for a while. They’d met in person a couple of times, but when all this happened, Kurtis was back in Britain. Basically, the plan was for me to leave Britain with Kurtis and cross the ocean to America. There, we’d spend a day getting to know each other as we traveled from the airport in Orlando to Liam’s place in Miami. At the time, I was pretty excited. From what Liam had told me about Kurtis, he seemed like a really cool person who had a lot in common with me, so I was looking forward to meeting him.
I met him in the airport about an hour and a half before our plane was scheduled to take off. He was tall, four or five inches above six feet, and had brown hair that messily hung around the tops of his ears. As I approached, I noticed that he had misty grey eyes, one darker than the other.
He waved at me. “Hey! You’re Avery, right? Liam’s sibling?"
I nodded. “Yeah. Uh, Kurtis, right?”
“Yup,” he responded. “C’mon, we have some time. What kinds of things do you do for fun?”
It turned out that Liam had been right; Kurtis and I did have a lot in common. Apparently, he worked as a writer, although he told me he hadn’t published any books yet. Liam was one of the few people he was close to, and I couldn’t really judge him for that. It’s not like I have many friends, either. I was surprised at how much he seemed to value his alone time; even for an introvert like me, his obsession with being alone was almost scary. But other than that, he seemed like a perfectly normal person, and I actually quite enjoyed our conversation.
Everything seemed totally fine and normal as we boarded the plane, and it’s important to note that the plane was packed with people. I’m sure every seat was full. There were many people on that plane, I know that. I could swear that plane was full.
But where could they all have gone?
We’d been flying for about two hours when Kurtis stood up and walked away from me without saying a word. I assumed he was going to the bathroom, but as time dragged on, and as the realization that he was going the wrong way struck me, I grew more and more unsettled. I had decided to go after him, so I stood up and-
And I can’t tell you what happened, or how it happened. One minute, the plane was full of people, but as I stepped away from my seat, it was as if they’d all vanished into thin air. I was entirely and painfully alone.
No, not quite alone, I thought. The plane was still flying, so the pilots had to still be there. They had to be.
The door to the cabin was locked, and no matter how hard I slammed my body into it, it stayed shut. I screamed, pounding and kicking at the door, hoping the pilot on the other side would hear me and open it, but there was nothing.
I turned around and Kurtis was standing a few feet away from me, head tilted slightly to the side. Relief washed over me - finally, here was another person! I wasn’t entirely alone after all!
“Kurtis!” I called. “What’s going on?”
He didn’t respond at first, and I wondered if somehow he hadn’t heard me. Then his face split into a wide grin, and I felt fear clutch at my chest.
“Uh, Kurtis?” I tried again.
“Avery,” he said casually, as if he was just making small talk. “What’s wrong?”
“What?” I snapped. “What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’? What do you think is wrong?”
“If it’s any consolation, you’re likely not going to die,” he said, as if that fixed anything.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I hissed at him.
“I had thought that would be obvious.”
“Well, it’s not.”
Kurtis stared at me, then sighed. “I’ll leave you to it, I think. I’ll be seeing you later.” Then he turned and… and, well, he just disappeared. It wasn’t as if he faded away or anything; he was just there one moment and gone the next, just like all the other people on the plane.
I don’t know how long I was there, trapped within the cold metal prison of the plane. It felt like a lifetime, but that can’t be possible. I never got hungry or thirsty or tired, and so I couldn’t mark the time that had passed by when I ate or when I slept.
I saw Kurtis a couple times. He didn’t speak to me again, just stood and stared, head tilted slightly to the side. It was unnerving, and after realizing I wasn’t going to get any kind of explanation out of him, I tried my best to ignore his presence. It was easier than I’d expected. Strangely, even when I was looking right at him, even when I was talking to him, it didn’t really feel like he was there with me. If anything, seeing him made me feel even more alone.
I cried a lot. I had no clue how long I’d be trapped, or if I was ever going to get out. Clearly, this was all somehow Kurtis’s fault, even though I doubt I’ll ever know what he did. All I knew was the crushing feeling of loneliness that pressed down on my mind and the sinking fear in the pit of my stomach that I may be trapped here forever, that I’d never get to see Liam’s smile, or hear his laugh, or get to hug him again. I’d felt alone before - I’d never had many friends, even as a kid, and I wasn’t exactly on the best of terms with my parents - but this was a different kind of loneliness, the kind that feels hopeless and empty and inescapable.
It hurts, you know, being alone like that for so long. It’s almost a physical ache, deep in the bones and throbbing through your veins. Sometimes, the pain pulls your breath out of your lungs and presses hard against your chest, leaving you gasping through your tears on the floor. But even that isn’t as bad as the pain in your mind, the depression and the confusion and the fear blending together into a messy, suffocating mix of emotions. I couldn’t think, feeling as if my brain was swimming in some kind of thick fog.
I pounded my fists against the walls until my knuckles were bruised and bloody, clawed at my arms and face until I tore out large chunks of skin, and pulled at my hair until clumps were being ripped out of my scalp. I screamed until it felt like I was swallowing barbed wire. Only one thought repeated over and over and over again in my head: I have to get out, I have to get out, I have togetout, Ihavetogetout, IhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetoutIhavetogetout-
I was able to force open one of the plane doors. I… I don’t remember how I got it open, my only memories being laying on the floor one moment, then standing by the open door with wind roaring around me the next. And I… I jumped out. You have to understand, I had to get out of that awful place, no matter the cost! I… I had no other choice!
I don’t remember passing out, just waking up in an American hospital, Liam at my side. Kurtis was standing by the door behind Liam, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked when he saw me stirring. I didn’t respond, I wasn’t even sure my voice still worked, instead, I just weakly slumped against my brother, hugging him as tightly as I could.
According to Liam - or more accurately, according to what Liam told me that Kurtis told him - I’d just suddenly passed out on the plane, and had been in some kind of coma since. No one could figure out what had caused it, and they didn’t believe me when I tried to explain what really happened. I… I swear it really happened, though. It all felt too real to just be a dream, right? There’s no way this could…
Saying this all out loud, I’m realizing just how crazy this all sounds. I just… I can’t have just made all that up, not when I swear Kurtis gave me a sinister, knowing smile when our eyes met during the wedding.
Yeah, the wedding. Uh, even though I told Liam what had happened, he still went through with the wedding. I suppose it could have been a nice event, but I spent the whole time watching Kurtis, waiting for him to show some sign that everything on the plane had been real, that I wasn’t just making this all up. His casual, friendly facade never slipped, of course, and I just spent the whole night in a sour mood. After the wedding, I went back to Britain as soon as possible. On a ship, of course. I doubt I’ll ever want to fly in a plane again.
I don’t want to be alone again, either. It’s… I’ve never felt afraid like this. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to understand that fear, the terror that, at any time, I could turn around, and the… and all the people would just be gone. And I have a sinking feeling that if that happened again, I wouldn’t be able to escape. Kurtis and that plane haunt me in my dreams, and even when I’m in a room that’s full of people, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m entirely alone. I used to love spending time on my own, but now, when it’s just me in a room all by myself, all I can feel is the crushing fear of loneliness.
Are you even really here? Or am I just talking to nobody at all? I hope you’re real, of course. I hope you can help me. I don’t think I have much time left, not when the line between my nightmares and real life is getting more and more blurred every day. Perhaps this is all just a hallucination, and I’m still trapped up in the sky, still hopelessly alone.
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