Author's Note: Everybody's heard of the film, Castaway with Tom Hanks - right? Well, I thought I would take the idea and mould my own story using the Twilight characters. Look out for the similarities, but it won't be exactly the same.
So, on with the story.
WARNING: Chapter's will not be extravagantly long because I have classes and work so I can't update every night.
All typos and errors are mine, if you see anything dramatically life changing then please alert me.
Disclaimer - Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I just like to borrow the characters.
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CHAPTER ONE
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I hated flying.
It made me anxious, irritable and nauseous.
My first trip in an aeroplane was when I was six years old to visit my dad in the States. My mom had moved me to England when I was five but brought me back a year later to visit Charlie, my Dad. That flight had excited me, and, who can blame me - I was only six. The thought of being above the clouds at that age when I was still in Disney Princess land was phenomenal.
Nowadays, I couldn't hate flying more.
The terminal was crappy enough with all the pushing and shoving and the argy-bargy of getting your bags checked in, your passport stamped, and then there was boarding the flight and getting a good seat and filing away your luggage.
There was always a busybody getting up every five minutes to shuffle and rummage through their bags and sticking their bottom in your face in the process. Today, all of that was happening to me.
I had found a seat, stored my luggage and had my headphones in, ready for a quiet, easy flight across the ocean to America.
I had a row to myself until a petite, dark haired woman sat down beside me and practically sat her ginormous handbag on my knee. I angled myself towards the window and tried to fall asleep, not wanting to watch the world become smaller and smaller underneath me.
...
I was jolted awake sometime later by the woman next to me and I opened my eyes to see her forehead wrinkled with worry as she leaned in closer to me.
"Hun, you better waken up," She whispered.
"What's wrong?" I asked sleepily, disoriented. I felt another jolt that wasn't caused by the woman's hands.
"Turbulence, or so they keep tellin' us," She snorted, her accent a thick Texan. I looked out of the window and saw rain hammering against the window, the dark night sky surrounding the plane.
"Is it a storm?" I whispered fearfully, turning my music off and untangling my headphones.
"I think so hun, but they won't tell us nothing'. It's all "Calm down Miss, no need to worry" kind of bullshit that ain't calming me down nothing," She exclaimed angrily with a flourish of her tiny hands.
I sat back in my seat, biting back tears. I always feared this would happen, but had not experienced it before.
Turbulence.
It sounded so scary.
I knew it was just the wind jostling the plane around a little and it happened all the time all over the world on lots of different flights, but I couldn't help worrying all the same.
Everyone else on the plane was murmuring amongst themselves, some talking on cell phones. I gulped as the Texan woman took out her own phone and began muttering animatedly into the receiver, obviously contacting her family.
Something bad was going on, I could feel it.
I couldn't move and I could barely breathe from shock. This could not be happening to me. I had been flying back and forth from England since I was six, and nothing like this had ever occurred.
The plane shook violently and the air hostess lost her balance and fell over into the aisle.
That's when the shouting and profanities began, questions being thrown in all directions but none being answered. The hostess looked startled as she stumbled to her feet and rushed away from the clamouring of questioning and went into the cockpit.
I didn't blame her.
I took out my phone, fingering it for a few seconds and trying to decide if I should contact my Dad and tell him we might be delayed.
In the end, I shut my phone off and stowed it in my jeans pocket, deciding I was going to be fine; nothing would happen.
Then the captains voice came over the intercom.
"Good evening ladies and gentleman this is your captain speaking, we are experiencing extreme turbulence at the moment but everything should be back to normal within a few minutes, please stay in your seats and remain calm as we can do nothing at the moment but press onwards and let the storm pass. I hope everyone has had a comfortable flight so far and-"
He was cut off by the largest jolt yet and alarms began ringing. Screams floated into the air and I shrunk into my seat, breathing hysterically. People were unbuckling their seatbelts and reaching for oxygen masks, some clasping each others hands and some crossing themselves.
The Texan woman was frantically pressing buttons on her phone.
"No signal," She whispered fearfully, dropping the phone and clutching my arm.
"My name's Alice Brandon, I'm from Southern Texas and I'm twenty years old," She rushed out as I held her hand tightly.
"I'm Bella Swan, twenty years old from Forks, Washington but currently living in England," I told her. Was this a goodbye speech?
"Nice to meet you, if it had been under better circumstances I might have offered you a drink somewhere," She mumbled sadly, her eyes tearing up.
I nodded and bit my lip, the plane still rumbling and groaning. The whole plane was filled with shouts and protests as cell phones slid across the floor and luggage fell out of compartments.
"Oh god," I muttered, tears spilling over at last.
"What's happenin'?" Alice sobbed into my shoulder, her spiky black hair tickling my chin. I didn't have time to answer her as the plane lunged forward and my seatbelt snapped, sending me flying into the seats in front. I saw Alice being hurled to the other side of the plane, blood pouring from her mouth.
I screamed as my body thumped over more seats and the plane began spinning and hurtling towards the ground. Everything blurred as bodies were thrown about, bags and oxygen masks hurtling towards the front of the plane.
I got to my feet just as the doors were ripped off and a horrible suction sound blasted my ears. People were sucked out of the doors and into the darkness, shouts and pleas going with them. I crawled over to the orange box near the cockpit and opened it, finding a life vest and an inflatable raft. I took them out and pulled on the vest lopsidedly, attaching it as best as I could as the wind whipped at my hair and knocked the breath out of me.
I sobbed violently, watching as more bodies sailed past me and out the door. I gripped a broken pole tightly, my knuckles turning white with effort. I slipped along the floor in my flat shoes and screamed when I was tugged violently towards the door.
I tightened my grip and held on, not knowing when this would end.
I had once been on a roller coaster in a popular theme park in England that had hurtled downwards in a straight line towards the ground and into a tunnel. It was the first and last experience I had had with roller coasters and didn't go on another again. This was ten times worse. I kept a hold of the raft, holding the string in my spare hand.
I felt a humongous explosion as we hit the ocean and water rapidly filled the cabin, causing me to become submerged in the horribly dark water as it began dragging me down into the darkness. I gasped and struggled, fighting to get the raft open with blind eyes.
It caught on something and kept me under longer, my oxygen running out as I panicked, gasping in bucketfuls of water.
I choked and spluttered, tugging at the string on the raft desperately. It finally gave in and inflated, pulling me upwards and out of the plane, into the ocean and into the sweet, sweet air.
I drank in lungfuls as I coughed and gasped and heaved, grabbing onto the raft for dear life as I stared out through blurry eyes at the damage caused by the crash.
There was flames floating along the waves in the oil and fuel spillage and I knew I needed to get away before the engines exploded. I cried helplessly, watching dismembered bodies float past as I paddled the raft away from the wreckage, hearing the explosion before I saw it.
I was thrown underwater again, not having time to take in breath.
The water blurred my vision as I floated back up to the surface, flailing my arms frantically, choking up salty water.
I spotted my yellow raft amongst the debris and grabbed it again, hauling myself into the middle and holding on tightly as the waves got higher and higher, my tears swallowed up by the adrenaline and fear as I went up one wave and crashed down the other side of it.
I sobbed mournfully as I thought about my Mom, tiny Alice, my Dad and my best friend Rosalie; people I would most likely never see again.
I wished I had made that phone call now, Charlie would be worrying, wondering where I was and why I hadn't contacted him. I had promised I would call him when I was halfway there.
I closed my eyes as the rain fell down onto me torrentially, making sure every crevice and pore of my skin and clothing was filled with water. The sky was dark and looming above me; I had never been so scared in all my life.
My clothes were heavy with water and sagged against me, pressing uncomfortably against my heaving chest. The raft was rapidly filling with rainwater and I feared it might sink or capsize with the force of the wind and waves.
I wanted this nightmare to end - I wanted to wake up to see Alice shaking me to consciousness again, but she was probably dead.
I cried more at that realisation. Did anyone know where we were? I could be here for days, alone, frightened and left to die.
I was dizzy and sick, holding in the urge to throw up all over my already sticky, damp state.
I let my eyelids slide close and allowed the darkness to claim me.
...
Chapter End Notes: Sorry about the cliffhanger, forgive me? I know this chapter will have been boring and seemingly pointless but trust me, it was needed. We will see what is in store for our Castawayella in the next chapter. In the meantime, please leave me a review so I can see if this story is worth pursuing.
Thank you for reading.
