Hi!
This is a re-write of my first story Flying Home, the characters are still the same and everything, I just needed to change a few things around and so I thought it would be easier to just re-start it completely. Sorry it's taken me so long to get things up here, I've been in a no internet zone (hell) and I'm starting Year 10 in a couple of days so updates may have long gaps, hopefully I'll be able to get a chapter posted every week but we shall see!
Sorry for my inane rambling. Please review, it would mean the world to me! Also if you see any mistakes please point them out, this story is currently un-betaed (is that how it's spelt?) and so if you do see anything please do tell me!
Thank you and on with the story!
DISCLAIMER: I, inkstainedfingerprint, own nothing apart from the laptop upon which I am writing this story (actually that's a lie, I own half of it) and my OC's.
Chapter One
"Lucy," She didn't answer.
"Lucy, come on." Still no answer.
"Luuuuccccccyyyyyyyy. Cooooommmmeeee ooooonnnnn." I whined. Her blue eyes closed and she groaned in annoyance, swinging her legs off the sofa.
"I hate you." She grumbled.
"I know," I replied, smirking. She groaned again.
"We have to go now if we're going to catch our flight." I said in a sing-song voce.
"I know, I know." She paused. "I still hate you."
"Boohoo, I'm heartbroken." I retorted. "Now can we please go? We have to arrive like an hour or so before."
"Okay, okay, hang on a minute while I grab my bags." I sighed. She smiled and disappeared up the stairs, reappearing minutes later with two large suitcases.
"Alright then, let's go."
"Good morning everybody, this is your Captain speaking, we will depart from London Gatwick at 12:00pm, local time and arrive at Dublin Airport at 1:30pm local time. Thank you for choosing Air Lingus." I smiled and buckled my seatbelt, reaching down into my bag for my book. I pulled it out and opened it at the first page.
"God, I can't believe you're reading that again. Don't you ever get bored of it?" Lucy asked, turning the page of her Vogue magazine.
"Nope." She shrugged, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder.
We were about forty minutes into the flight when it began to get bumpy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently experiencing some turbulence so if you could all sit down and fasten your seatbelts." Came the falsely sunny voice of one of the air hostesses. There was a large bump and one of the old women in the row in front of us shrieked. Lucy rolled her eyes. There was another bump and the lady sitting next to me yelped and grabbed my arm.
"Sorry, I'm a nervous flier." She said quietly. I smiled at her politely and slowly moved my arm out of grabbing range.
"It's just, planes are just metal boxes in the sky and-" Bump. "there's no way-" Bump. "out of them." Bump. "And if something-" Bump. "goes wrong-" Bump. "they can't" Bump. "fix it" Bump. "while it's" Bump. "in the-" Bump. "air." She's starting to scare me. The plane gives a funny little lurch. Someone's screaming. I think it's the lady next to me. There's another bump and I grab onto Lucy's hand. The plane drops. A man in the aisle across from us shoots up out of his chair and bangs his head on the overhead locker. Oh God, he's bleeding. Another large bump and one of the overhead lockers opens, raining down bags and coats. One of the air hostesses staggers down the aisle. The plane jolts and she shrieks, practically running back to her seat and strapping herself in. I clutch tighter to Lucy's hand. I'm starting to panic. My heart is racing and my palms are sweaty. Oh God I can't breathe.
There's another lurch. There's a weird popping sound and the oxygen mask drops down in front of me. I stare at it dumbly for a minute before Lucy's shaking my shoulder and shoving the mask at me. I pull it on quickly and tighten it around my head. The plane jolts and Lucy grabs my hand. Lucy is scared. My fearless older sister is scared. I think I'm going to cry. Another lurch. I don't cry but I do scream. So does everyone else. We're falling. The plane is going to crash and we're all going to die.
We're all going to die. Oh my God. We're all going to die. Oh my god. Oh my God. Oh my god. A fresh wave of panic washes over me. The plane lurches forward again and then there's a sudden sensation of weightlessness. I clutched at the arm rests. Oh my God. The plane is falling. I'm never going to see my parents again. Oh my God. Oh my God. Gravity is pulling at me, pulling me up into the hard plastic ceiling. The woman beside me crashes into the overhead locker. She's mopping blood off her face. Oh my God!
There was another huge bump and I can barely hear the tinny intercom over the screaming.
"….failure… engine…..overheated…evacuate…" The pilot sounds terrified.
One of the air hostesses stumbles down the aisle to the middle of the plane.
"You need to open the door!" she yells.
"The emergency exit! We have to evacuate the plane!" The people in the middle started to scream even more but none of them moved. The air hostess gives a shout of frustration and pushes past the passengers to the door, trying to open it. The plane lurches forward again and she falls. The plane evens out and there's a moment of peace and I feel Lucy relax slightly beside me. Her grip on my hand loosens and she exhales deeply, giving me a small smile. Then the plane plunges. I scream. My mind was racing. All the things that I'd never done and never would do- I'd never been to Glastonbury, I'd never been out of Europe, I'd never been up a mountain, I'd never gone white water rafting, I'd never gone rock climbing, or abseiling, or kayaking, or travelling round the world. I'd never see Japan, or China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, New York, Florida, California, Mexico, Peru, Moscow, St. Petersburg. I would never finish my degree, I would never graduate, I would never get a job, I would never get a promotion, and I would never settle down and get married. I would never have a family.
The plane continued to spiral through the sky.
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." I repeated over and over again, stumbling over words and clutching at the seats with shaking hands.
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Lucy joined in with a shaky voice.
The plane fell and I was thrown forward into the chair in front of me. I groaned. There was another large bump and the locker above me opened. Bags came tumbling down and something hard and sharp fell onto me, digging into my scalp. My head exploded in pain. Lucy screamed. I touched my forehead and whimpered when my fingers came away coated in blood. There was another lurch. I started to cry. Lucy clutched my hand, holding it tighter. I blinked away blood. Spots started to appear before my eyes. My head was pounding. The intercom was crackling. There was a loud bang. The spots got bigger, forming on large black spot. I couldn't see anything. The noises around me started to fade to a whirring. Then there was silence. Just me and the darkness inside my head.
"We interrupt tonight's broadcast to bring you the latest update on the plane crash on the coast of Northern Ireland. The aircraft has been retrieved and the cause of the crash identified as an engine failure. The aircraft has been identified as the Air Lingus BOEING 17625 flight to Belfast International. Air Lingus has released a statement saying that they are 'sorry for the pain and suffering that they have caused the families of the victims. They will be conducting an internal investigation to make sure that it does not happen again.' The youngest victim, identified as Cara O'Sullivan, a twenty year old woman who was travelling with her older sister Lucy, has been described as a caring and beautiful girl, with the brightest of futures ahead of her. Her older sister has been described as a lovely, intelligent and brilliant girl who was looking forward to her last year at University studying Medicine. The eldest Miss O'Sullivan is currently is in a critical condition in Intensive care. She is twenty-three years old. The plane left from Gatwick Airport today at 12:00 with 135 people on board. At 12:50, the engines failed and the aircraft crashed into the cliff side on the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
There were no other survivors."
So yeah, that's Chapter One, pretty much the same as before, a few small changes but practically the same. I'll try and get Chapter Two up quickly. Please leave a review, even if it's a criticism, I'll happily welcome constructive criticisms to help improve my work. I'm not sure how long a Medicine degree lasts so I looked it up on good old Wikipedia which said that they lasted five years so if she started Uni when she was eighteen then she'd be twenty-three now, if any one knows different please tell me, I want to get all the little details right. So yeah, thank you for reading and I'll see you all soon!
M x
