Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

HIRO

“Since your new mother-in-law is getting up to use the bathroom, I’ll get up now so we don’t disturb her if she falls asleep,” Maddox says, referring to Charlotte who has at least stopped asking if I would meet her daughter.

“That’s a good idea,” I reply. We still have so much of the flight left but at least it hasn’t gone too badly so far. Marshall, the guy with the sleeping girlfriend, even wandered back to watch some movies with the rest of the ghosts. And then he declared to everyone that he was a comedian in life and Reggie asked him to do a striptease so he, instead, did some stand-up comedy. I tried my best not to stare at him or laugh for absolutely no reason, but it was rather difficult, especially with Reggie and Natalie joining in when they could.

Once we’re waiting in line for the bathroom, Maddox gives my hand a squeeze. “You doing alright? I know being locked in a small space isn’t ideal for you.”

“I’m doing good. It’s actually… I’m going to be honest, when I saw them surrounding me, I was beginning to panic a little. I couldn’t fathom how I was going to just sit there and… deal with that for thirteen hours, but I think sometimes they have to remember that I’m also a person.”

“True,” he says as a door opens up. He waves me ahead of him. “Go on.”

I slip inside and the moment my zipper is down, Reggie appears. “Privacy?” I ask.

“Can I have a dictionary definition?” he asks. “Better yet… can you use it in a sentence?”

“Can I please have some privacy so I can piss in peace!”

Reggie waves the request off. “It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m not super looking at your willy. I’ve already seen it like a hundred times at this point.”

“Only a hundred?” Natalie asks as she sits on the counter. “That’s such a weak number.”

Suddenly Keaton steps in.

“Dear god, not you now too.”

“Something’s not right,” he says.

“What do you mean something’s not right?” I ask just before I hear a scream.

Quickly, I zip my pants back up and push through the door to see who is screaming when I’m startled still. A woman who’d been passing by hadn’t expected me to step out so suddenly and ends up slamming into me, throwing me out into the aisle that I want no goddamn part of.

“I’m so sorry,” she says as she tries to steady me, but my eyes are fixated on the seats, many of which are filled with the dead. It’s like I can no longer see the living, only ghosts that look back at me, like they know I can see them.

That’s the moment the overhead lights begin to flicker above me. They were already dimmed, but every time they flicker, they toss the cabin straight into darkness.

Hudson and the other ghosts who’d been sitting near me look confused as they begin backing away from the dead who are all watching me intently.

“What the fuck is going on?” Reggie asks as I turn around to see that the aisle behind me is also filled with ghosts.

“Don’t touch me,” Marshall orders as one of the dead grabs for him. It’s like they suddenly get transfixed by him as more reach out for him. Another starts dragging him back as someone reaches for Natalie.

“Oh, no, no,” Natalie says, and that’s when all of the lights inside the plane go off. The windows are closed, but even if they were open, we would be faced with a night sky, so we’re dropped straight into darkness.

I grab tightly on to Natalie as panic rolls through me, and I jerk her and Reggie back to where Keaton is.

“Let me go, let me go,” Hudson cries as someone turns on their phone flashlight, waving it around to see what’s happening as I see Hudson down on the ground, the ghosts reaching for him. Another tries tearing Reggie back, but Keaton yanks him free.

Scrambling, I grip Hudson’s hand and pull him toward me as the dead seem to realize what I’m doing… and that I can interact with them. They rush me, grabbing at me. Hands cover my body, pulling at my arms and legs, clinging to my clothes. I feel their crushing holds and their nails rake against my flesh.

“Help me,” one cries.

“Save me,” another begs.

“I don’t want to die,” a third wails.

“Please stop, it’s okay, it’s all okay,” I say, even though I’m not quite so fucking sure it is.

“Let him go!” Keaton yells, trying to shield Reggie while he reaches for me. That’s when the ghosts slam into me, knocking me off balance and onto the ground. I can feel them on every inch of me and there’s nothing Keaton, Natalie, or Reggie can do to pull them off me. I feel like they’re going to drag me away—that they’re going to destroy me. Their holds tighten on me, their hands frantic. No matter how hard I pull or try to drag myself away, I can’t get away from their desperation. It’s like the strength Millie had all over again, but this time, there’s way more than one.

Strong arms wrap around me, drawing me back out of the darkness as more phone flashlights flicker on from the people who aren’t asleep and missing all of this.

“Hiro? Hiro, it’s me. It’s okay. It’s Maddox,” he says. His hold tightens as my heart thunders out of my chest.

“What is happening? You have to tell me what’s happening. I can’t tell anything other than the fact that the lights have gone out.”

“They’re everywhere. They’re grabbing me,” I say, because even though he’s holding me, it doesn’t mean that I can get away. I can feel their nails raking down my arms, their grips tightening.

“Don’t let them. You can control this. Don’t let them,” he assures me as he squeezes me tightly to him. “You can control them. Don’t forget that.”

Maddox is right… I can stop them from touching me. I just have to draw strength from him. I can do this.

They’re pawing at me, grabbing me, tugging me so hard that Maddox almost loses his grip on me, and panic fills me as I question whether he’s wrong. What if I can’t?

“Excuse me! I need to get through—” Danielle, the flight attendant, says as she rushes past with a flashlight, but as she passes through a ghost, the flashlight flickers and goes out.

“Stop,” I whisper. “Stop touching me.”

And I throw everything into it. I need them to stop. I need them to just… go away.

“Please stop!” I hiss, and then the hands are gone and the lights flicker back on.

People are clearly confused, looking around to see what’s happened. There’s some fear creeping into place, people afraid something’s wrong with the plane that they’re locked inside, but they have absolutely no idea what’s just taken place. No one does besides me.

Glancing around, I realize that the ghosts are gone. The only ones still here are the ones who’d been on the plane before I’d gone into the bathroom.

“They’re gone,” I say.

“What the hell happened?” Maddox asks.

“Everyone, please return to your seats. There’s nothing to worry about. The lights just momentarily went off,” Danielle says with a smile. “The seat belt sign is back on, and I need everyone to return to their seats and put their seat belts on.”

“Hiro, what happened?” Maddox asks.

“There were… so many ghosts. Nearly every seat had a ghost. They were everywhere. They were grabbing the other ghosts… grabbing me. They were like… in this trance. I only ever see them in a trance like that when someone’s going to die or someone’s been killed. But never that many. And they’ve never just… come after me like that. I… I think they wanted me to help them, but they…” I trail off.

“You think something happened on the plane?” Maddox asks as he looks around. Pretty much everyone is awake now, looking around nervously… everyone except Marshall’s sleepy girlfriend, who he is hovering beside with wide eyes.

“What’s happening?” Hudson asks. “Is this shit that happens? Please, what’s going on?

He looks close to tears, and I want to help him. I want to say something to him but all I can do is offer him a hand, feeling absolutely overwhelmed myself. Thankfully, Natalie rushes over and hugs him. “It’s okay, honey. Everything’s fine. I promise.”

Maddox hurries me over to our aisle where Charlotte quickly gets up for us to slide in.

“Honey, what happened to your arms? Did your girlfriend do that?” she asks.

I look down at them and see the scratches and bruises already showing up from the way they’d grabbed me. “No. I just… don’t like the dark,” I say as I tug my sleeves down to hide them, like that’s some kind of excuse. Maddox puts up the armrest between us and pulls me close to him.

“Did you hear anything else?” he asks in concern.

“No.”

“Were they centered around anyone specific?” he asks, talking about the ghosts.

“No, it was spread out,” I say. I can tell Charlotte is watching, but this shit really only happens when someone dies… so did someone just die? And not just like “He had a heart attack” because generally only some kind of tragic death, usually a murder, would cause this level of panic in the dead.

He squeezes my hand as he watches the flight attendant for a moment before looking back at me. “No new ones, though?”

I realize he’s asking if there are new ghosts. “No… but maybe Keaton and the other two could check that for me? They could make sure they’re not in an area I can’t see.”

“I’m too freaked out to even leave your ass,” Reggie says. “I felt like those fuckers were going to suck me down and not in a good way.”

Natalie shudders. “Maybe if we all hold hands.” She snatches up Keaton’s and Reggie’s hands before they start dropping down to the cargo bay, and I can tell just how freaked out everyone is by the fact that Keaton doesn’t let go of her hand.

Maddox doesn’t want to draw attention to us, but I can tell he’s concerned about my arms.

“They’re fine,” I assure him, but he still checks them by flipping them every which way.

About fifteen minutes later my ghosts return, and Reggie announces, “Nope. No new dead. No bodies. Nothing.”

“Weird,” I say.

“What is?” Maddox asks.

“They found nothing.”

“Well… that’s good. Maybe it was just… them wanting some closure.”

“Yeah,” I say, just wanting off this airplane far too fucking badly.

As Reggie and Natalie talk with Hudson, Keaton appears in front of me. “I don’t know if his family will be here to collect his body, but he seems to think his daughter will be. So when we arrive, we’ll walk with him before catching up to you two.”

“I wish I could do something,” I say, and Maddox glances over at me.

“With?”

“There’s a guy here named Hudson who is very new… as in… he’s being transported on the plane where his family will be picking him up.”

“I don’t think there’s anything more you could do,” Keaton says. “It was a car accident. He just… he really seems like he just wants to see her one last time.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I’m glad you could be there for him,” Maddox says, voice gentle as he squeezes my hand.