I grab her hand and pull her closer. Gasping for breath, I yell over the deafening noise of the wind flapping around us, almost like what helicopters sound like in flight, "Amelia! What's going on!"
She says nothing, except she looks me in the eye and says, "Doomsday."
And just like that she's gone.
Just like in the dream.
But unlike the dream, this time I pass out.
9.
Slowly regaining consciousness and strength, I lift myself up from the floor and see myself in the all too familiar room. The room of doors.
Wasting no time, I take the door in front of me, and seconds later I'm being shoved past as people run, kids trailing behind them, dragging giant suitcases and heavy handbags. Confused, I look up.
-> Arrival
∞
He was walking with Jada to the bus stop when he felt his phone buzz against his thigh. Thinking nothing of it, he pulls it out, trying to listen to Jada's gossip at the same time.
Got one.
He stops dead in his tracks, the fear rising, threatening to suffocate him. The crowd pushes past him, and it takes a while for Jada to notice his absence next to her too.
She's about to give some snarky remark before she notices the ghastly expression on his face, and her smile fades off hers.
Walking toward him, she breathes, "Is it...is it what we feared?"
"It's worse," he says, pocketing the phone, now walking away from the bus stop, cutting through the crowd. Jada follows him, not knowing what to think.
∞
"Hello?"
In the middle of a sleepy town, Jessie clutches her phone with a sense of determination.
"Jessie! Are you ok? Oh my gosh, you're alive."
"Yeah. I mean, physically, yeah, I'm alive...but I'm all alone in an unknown place, and don't know what to do."
There's a silence at the end of the line. "Yeah, ok, we figured that might happen," Jada's voice comes in faintly through the other end. "Ok, Jessie, you've got to stay calm..."
"Yeah, yeah, of course I do."
"And you've got to go into the nearest pub."
"What? Pub?" Jessie shrieks.
"Just go. And then go to the men's bathroom, and..." She pauses for a little. "...okay, go into a cubicle, and flush the toilet three times."
"WHAT?!"
"Just do it, Jess. I don’t know, but that's what Drew's telling me, and he says it's the only way out. Or...something."
Jessie scoffs. "Well, I guess stranger things have happened...actually nope, this is the strangest thing. Okay, stay on the line with me. I don't want to be completely alone."
She looks around to find herself surrounded by rows upon rows of old, rusty, seemingly abandoned buildings. It's dark, so she presumes everyone had gone home, everyone except...people at pubs.
She begins to walk down the deserted street, hoping for some sort of sign of movement or light. And sure enough, she finds it.
A faint murmur of voices is what draws her in first. Then, she notices the little flickers of movement and the hanging lightbulb that dims every couple of seconds. But the people inside don't seem to care.
Before pushing the door open, she looks up, thinking it wouldn't hurt to find the name of the place. She notices a faded wooden sign, in the shape of an arrow. But since its half hanging off, the arrow points to the ground, and not straight right, like it's supposed to.
-> Journey
∞
Damon lands with a thud. As he picks himself, trying to stand up straight, he takes in his surroundings first. A room, in what seems like a reasonably normal house. Couch. A small TV. Armchair devoid of cushions. Fancy fluffy rug. Mustard coloured curtains. Coffee table, with empty mug.
Have I been kidnapped?
He pushes that thought aside for a while, looking some more.
When he starts REALLY looking, the reality of the situation sinks in. It was no surprise that there was no one home, but the house looked like it was abandoned for quite some time. Thin layers of dust line the shelves of the bookshelf and the coffee table, even the surface of the TV. Cobwebs mark the top corners, while skinny spiders hang off them.
But that's nothing compared to what he sees next.
Deciding he'd much rather spend his time looking for a way out, or looking for the others, or maybe even some indication of where he was, he walks out through the kitchen and down one of the corridors on the right.
In normal houses, corridors are lined with paintings, or family portraits, maybe even some abstract art. But then this was no ordinary house, because instead the walls were lined with scratch marks. And, to his horror, messages. Creepy messages, like 'keep out' 'don't go any further' 'beware, intruder'.
Is this some kind of sick joke? Or am I actually walking towards danger?
Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all...
He tries to stop, but it's like some invisible force is pulling him – dragging him, almost, further and further down this doomed corridor. That's when he starts to panic, struggling to stop himself.
It almost seems like a dream, a nightmare, the way his fear clouds his surroundings, the way his heart rises to his throat. He knows he should be scared, but every time he tries to calm himself down, think things through clearly, he just freaks out even more.
And then...he stops.
Yes, you guessed it.
A set of stairs head down, disappearing into darkness.
Above the set of stairs, there's words scratched onto the walls.
-> Destination
He gulps, reluctant to go down, but this time the invisible force pushes him, and he grips onto the handrails, desperate to find some sort of control over his own body.
The set of stairs end much quicker than the corridor. But now he's enveloped in darkness, standing in a dark, dark room, supposedly stuck. He can't move his feet...but he finds himself pulling his phone out of his pocket, turning the flashlight on and leading its bright fluorescent light around the room. His hands are shaking, sweat rolling down his face, as he slowly turns it around.
Then, he hears a click.
As he flips his head around, body overcome with a newfound sense of control, his phone light pointing at the ground, he sees something he's seen before, maybe once or twice, or a million times.
His heart hammering against his chest, he cries out in desperation, "Mrs Renee!"
She drops the gun and breathes the sigh of relief she's been holding in for too long.
∞
"Alessia! Over here!"
I quickly turn around at the mention of my name. To my relief, I see Flynn, and immediately run up to him. As I get closer, I notice Shayleigh is behind him.
"Hey. Where are the oth-" I abruptly stop, as I come to a realisation.
"Oh. They all took different doors."
"Yep," says Flynn, "We didn't do it, by the way. Damon and I. I mean, why would we? The bad guys must've done this, to-
"Split us up." I finish.
"Exactly," says Flynn. Shayleigh nods.
"Well this is just great." I can't hide the annoyance that underlines that remark. "What do we do now?"
"I dunno," Flynn says, looking straight at me. "Do we stay, or leave, or what?"
I rack my brain for some ideas. Nothing really hits me. I mean, only three of us are stuck in what seems like an airport. We don't even know exactly what country we are in, and whether we can contact the others...wait, can we?
It's not long before I realise that they were basically waiting for me to come and think up of something, because they're staring straight at me right now.
"Um," I quickly glance at Shayleigh, then up at Flynn (he's significantly taller), "Maybe we should start off by figuring out where we are."
"Yeah, good idea," says Shayleigh. "We can ask someone."
Right when Shayleigh says that, a man bumps into her, making her almost trip. "Oi, watch it kid!" He practically shouts, before shuffling off.
"I
don't think that's a very good idea," I say, when the man leaves. Shayleigh smiles at me and nods.
"I'll ask the people at the counter," Flynn announces, and practically leaves without us. Shayleigh and I quickly run up to him, right when he's asking a middle-aged man dressed in police uniform.
I don't think this is a good idea...
The man frowns at before answering, "You're at Singapore Airport. But how old are you all?"
Flynn looks at me quickly, then answers, "I'm sixteen. She's my younger cousin, she's 14, and that's her friend of the same age."
The man frowns even further. My heart pounds a little faster.
But before the man can react, Flynn starts running. Again.
Reacting quickly, I grab Shayleigh's wrist and start running as well. I have no idea what Flynn is doing, but if there's one thing that the conspiracy has taught me so far, it's to never underestimate the seriousness of a situation.
I hear the guy yelling at us constantly to stop, and in my head, I pray no one else is chasing us too. I quickly look back, and to my horror I spot police officers.
We're going to get caught and arrested. Flynn, what are you doing?
Somehow we find ourselves in a boarding area, where a line of people are boarding the plane. I say sorry about a million times as I shove past people and push into the front of the line.
At the front a lady dressed in all red looks at us in horror. "What are you-" she starts, but doesn't get to finish, because Flynn pushes her, making her trip and fall dangerously on her back.
He looks at me with a look of panic and desperation, and says, "Run. Don't stop."
We run through what seems like a tunnel, presumably leading to the entrance of the plane. My stomach flips as I hear the distant yet approaching yells echoing through the walls. Panting, I yell, "Flynn, what's wrong? Why are we doing this?"
"Nothing's wrong," he yells back. "We just need to get to Scotland fast somehow. This is the only way!"
I fight the urge to stop dead in my tracks. "Wait what, illegally?"
"And I suppose you have all our passports, don't you?"
"But we're going to get caught anyway!" I yell, as I thump to a halt.
The door opens with a loud creak. "Quick!" Flynn yells, grabbing Shayleigh's hand and pulling her inside with him. I follow inside and turn around.
"Hey! Hey! Stop in the name of the law!"
My blood freezes, as I watch the policemen come closer and closer.
It's times like this, when you're tempted to go over your entire life and wonder what the actual heck you got yourself into. I mean, it's not every day that you steal an entire plane with two of your classmates, is it now?
The door closes right on their faces, and with shaking hands Flynn presses the lock.
That's when the banging starts.
With each bang my heart skips a little. I look at Flynn, who stares at me for a moment, then runs off again. I quickly follow him, with Shayleigh close behind.
He goes up to the front of the plane, all the way to the front, where the pilot is. He slams open the door, which is surprisingly unlocked. I quickly follow him inside.
I look back and forth once, and then twice, and then the third time.
But there's no one there.
There's no pilot.
∞
"Excuse me sir, but do you know where the bathroom is?"
"What?" The man yells, as Jessie has an internal Jada-style groan.
It was hard enough manoeuvring through all the drunk old men dancing and giggling like little girls, but now this?
"The BATHROOM!" She yells, as he jumps back a little. He quickly stands still again, fixes up his tie, and clears his throat. "Ahem, right this way," he says with a thick accent.
Jessie looks down at her phone again. She blinks furiously as the bright light of the phone momentarily blinds her, then checks to see that Jada's still on the line.
Yep, still there.
As she follows the man closely, dodging past all the people inside, she notices that the bathroom's must be ages away, as the man just continues walking with no noticeable intentions of stopping.
The inside of the pub itself is quite dark. It's not quite like the movies, though, and she's quite glad it isn't. She'd always imagined a pub to be incredibly noisy, as sweaty people are shouting and screaming and swearing and throwing themselves everywhere with no balance and no control of their limbs. She'd always viewed it in a bad light, but she knew that not all people were like that.
That was Jessie imagining a club, though. A pub was much different. And now that she was in one, she'd know.
She snaps back into reality as the man abruptly stops. For a moment he just stands there, then turns around and says, "Here it is, miss. The ladies’ bathroom."
Jessie gives the man an awkward, small smile and steps forward, as he steps behind her. But he doesn't leave - instead, he watches her, and she still feels his presence behind him. It irritates her more than Drew ever could, but she knows what she'll have to do.
The heavy metal bathroom door shuts with a rather booming noise as Jessie steps into the small bathroom. She stares at the door for a second, waiting for a couple of moments to pass by, then slowly and carefully opens the door and peeks through.
All clear.
Discreetly and quickly she walks over to the men's bathroom. She sighs as she examines the sign, Male, and quietly whispers, "What have I gotten myself into?" to herself.
The inside of the men's bathroom looks exactly like the inside of the female bathroom, except for the urinals of course. But Jessie wasn't here for the urinals. Marching over to one of the cubicles, she takes out her phone and brings it to the side of her head.
"I'm in."
She hears Drew chuckle on the other side. Annoyance rises up inside of her (surprising, because Jessie rarely gets mad) and she huffs, "Drew! This'd better not be some sort of joke, because if it is..."
"Haha, relax Jessie. I know what I'm doing. If you do it right, this'll send you back to us, and you won't be stuck in Scotland all on your lonesome no more."
She gulps as a thought crosses her mind. Is it all over then? What about the team Alessia and I had going? Am I just going to be third wheeling back at school with Jada and Drew?
She replies, "Yeah, well, it's hard to flush a toilet wrong, so I think I can do it."
Drew gives a small grunt of approval, but before Jessie can ask where Jada is the door to the bathroom opens.
"Yeah, I'll be back Jack, not a problem, just gotta do s'thing first." The man's voice echoes through the almost empty bathroom, as Jessie just locks the door.
"Hello?" Hearing Jada's rather loud voice from her phone, Jessie quickly presses End Call and flushes once, heart hammering in her chest.
After waiting impatiently for the tank to refill she presses the button again, this time the half flush to make things quicker. She quickly regrets her decision. What if doesn't work now?
Whatever Jessie. Just flush!
As she waits for the tank to refill a third time, her finger poised over the button, she hears someone playing with the lock on her door.
What the-
"I know you're in there...Jessie."
As a sudden shock hits Jessie, she barely even gets time to react. Her reflexes work to her advantage and she hits the button just as the door crashes open. Within seconds, she's sucked into somewhere and well and truly knocked out.
∞
"Thank GOD you always wear red converse."
Mrs Renee smirks at this. "Well, it's just my personal style, I guess."
"No, but that was scary! I've never been so...freaked out in my entire life."
She gives him a knowing look. "Really, Damon?"
He looks away abruptly and the cheeky smile ceases.
Time to change the subject.
"Mrs Renee, what about upstairs?"
"What about them?"
"Shouldn't we check them out?"
"Don't
need to." She looks at Damon once again, then shakes her head. "I haven't checked there, actually. But what's there to see anyway? Old furniture and more of those disgusting rats, that's what. And-" she points a finger to shush Damon, who tries to intervene, "if someone was up there already, they would've already come down and killed us by now."
The Conspiracy Theory of June 17 Page 9