As if the howling wind wasn’t enough, the seemingly endless rain poured down on John, chilling him to the bone. He scurried to the entrance of the airport and swiftly opened the door, scouring the lobby with his eyes for his best friend, Joseph.
Suddenly, his phone started to buzz from his pocket. John took it out and read the caller identification. The call was from Joseph. John immediately picked up.
“Beautiful weather we have today, isn’t it?” Joseph sarcastically questioned from over the phone.
“Well that’s Seattle for you. Where are you? The plane leaves in less than an hour!!” John responded with slight agitation.
“Calm down, I’ll be here soon.”
“Good, because I need this vacation.” John remarked in relief.
John ran to the security line, his messy black hair flopping into his dark brown eyes. He passed through the line and sat down, waiting to board the plane. As soon as he sat down, his phone went off with yet another call from Joseph.
“What happened? You said you’d be here soon! Where are you?!” John angrily questioned.
An ominous feminine voice responded from the other side of the phone, “Oh I’ll be there soon enough.”
“What? Joseph are you alright?” John asked futilely as the woman had already hung up.
At this point, the plane was ready to be boarded and John made his wayn on the plane with great haste. Starting to get nervous, he intertwined his fingers and fiddled around with them, which was kind of a nervous habit for him. Then he spotted Joseph.
“Joseph, over here!” John yelled. The teen turned around, his shaggy blond hair moving in all directions. Joseph smiled, waving to John.
“Where have you been?” John asked.
“You know, here and there,” the enigmatic teen replied, his ice blue eyes shining.
“Whatever. At least you’re here now. What was up with you last call? And who was speaking” John asked with curiosity.
“What do you mean, ‘What was up with you last call?’ I was just telling you that I’d be there soon. I was speaking!” Joseph replied.
“Since when did your voice get so feminine though?” John asked.
“Excuse you, my voice has been the same level of masculinity for this entire day!” Joseph responded.
“Fine, just check your phone and I can prove to you that you called me twice today!” John yelled.
“Is that a challenge,” Joseph said, arching his brow, “Well consider that challenge accepted!” He reached deep into both of his pockets, scrambling to look for his phone, only to find that it wasn’t there.
“What happened?” John asked c***ily.
“I-I can’t seem to find my phone,” he answered crestfallen.
“Huh. That’s strange. Maybe it wasn’t you that called me than.” John said.
Before Joseph had the chance to respond, a voice sounded over the speaker, “Everybody, please get into your seats and prepare for takeoff. I repeat prepare for takeoff.”
The two teens got into their seats, bracing themselves for takeoff.
When the plane finally got into the sky, they were allowed to walk around again. Without any warning, the lights went off.
Screams went around everywhere in the pitch black jet. There was a loud THUMP! among all of the screaming. The true horror of this situation was discovered when the lights turned back on.
In the middle of a seemingly normal aisle, there was a dead body. Next to the dead body there was a picture. John quickly ran over to see the body. When he got there, he gasped. The picture was of Joseph and his sister who was kidnapped years ago. It was dated to the exact day she was kidnapped.
“Joseph, you uh, might want to come see this,” John called in a shaky voice, now pailing to be the color sheet paper.
“I can’t understand what would be so important that I would need to come see it, but okay.” Joseph stated getting up quietly.
When Joseph made his way over to the body he dropped to his knees and stared at the picture.
“Tha-That’s Tara,” he sobbed; shaking so hard he nearly dropped to his knees.
“It’s okay,  it’s okay,” John tried to soothe his best friend, “There’s no proof that this body is Tara’s”
Joseph could barely find words. All he had the strength to say was, “Why, why? I tried to save you Tara, I really did.”
John ran as fast as he could to the c***pit. He burst in there quickly
“Pilot, this plane needs to land immediately,” Joseph demanded, “A woman has been murdered!” Waves of shock rippled across the room.
“Well, of course I would, but were in the middle of the ocean right now. There’s no way I could land without killing every single passenger on the plane!” The pilot replied politely.
“Of course, righ-” John started but was cut off when he heard screaming coming from behind him. He ran back in there quickly, wondering how the pilot didn’t hear the screaming previously.
When he came back the lights were already back on. This time, there was a man with white hair dead in the middle of the aisle. Next to him was a watch.
When Joseph went over to inspect it, he took a double take. “This was her watch!!” Joseph screamed angrily.
John ran over to look at it. The watch was golden with three names carved into it, Tara Falker, Joseph Falker, and John Ridgeway. This had to be hers. She had the same watch in the picture, and the fact that it knew their names proved it even further. “We need to find out who did this!” John screamed angrily.
Joseph curtly nodded his head. He walked over to John and asked, “Any ideas?”
“Only one, but you won’t want to hear it.” John stated nervously.
“JUST TELL ME!” Joseph screamed.
“Fine. I think it might be Tara.” John stumbled across his words as he said them.
Joseph gasped, shocked. “How could you!”
“Just hear me out. The fact that her picture was found next to the first body was a symbol telling us that she was dead. However, the fact that the watch was there says that she is alive. Maybe it’s alluding to the fact that she is the murderer. Also, who else knows about her disappearance and has either of those items. Sure, it could be the kidnapper, but I find it much more likely that she is the one here.”
“W-Why does that actually make sense. No! What am I thinking, this is my sister we’re talking about! I can’t believe she could do something like this! I just can’t!” Joseph relented.
“But she did. Whether you can believe it is beside the point!” John yelled crazily.
“Fine. We need to just wait for now and we can catch her when the next murder happens.” Joseph said.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the lights went out. With all of the screaming, the two boys were able to soundlessly tip-toe into the aisle without being heard.
That’s when a scream rang out from beside John. He turned around and chased after the person that killed John. He ran as fast as he could, screaming as loud as he could. That’s when the light turned on. He saw someone run into the c***pit. He ran in cautiously.
“So you caught us! Great job!” A woman with blond hair proclaimed cheerfully.
John was taken aback at the cheerful mood of the lady. It was almost as if she didn’t care she was caught.
The pilot turned around and said, “I’m surprised! You actually didn’t suspect me.”
“Huh! You’re part of this too? Why? How?” John exclaimed.
“Well after I kidnapped Tara, she was very afraid at first, for obvious reasons. Eventually she started to warm up to me until it was full on Stockholm's Syndrome. She had a burning hatred against her brother whom she loved so dearly for not rescuing her. So we concocted this plan. I have been turning the lights on and off while Tara has been murdering the people.”
“Well that sums it up nicely. But now you're caught! What do you think you’re going to do now?” John said confidently.
“Wow, you think you’re in control here? How funny! You see, I have the pilot on my side. This plane goes where I demand.” Tara butted in before slowly walking over to John with a cloth in her hand.
“What are you doi-,” John was cut off by chloroform entering his body. “No.. This can’t be happening.” he said weakly before losing consciousness.
Everything was dark.
When John woke up, his head hurt and he had no idea where he was. At further glance, he realized his surroundings were barren and bleak, and that his arms and legs were tied to a chair of sorts. On a table next to him a single jade vine flower had been lain.
One thought went through John’s mind: Where was he?