title: The Perfect Picture

author: Ene

type: Lost fanfic

rating: PG to PG-13 for a bit of language and kissing in flashbacks – between two girls, mind you

summary: another survivor! Leah, a high school art student, finds herself on Oceanic flight 815, and it's crashing! cue dramatic music

disclaimer: IT'S ALL LIES! well, Gravitation is a real group, but still!

-chapter 1-

click

Leah wound the film in her camera and stared across the tops of heads through the viewfinder. She focused on a particularly bald head.

click

The teen leaned back in her seat, putting the lens cap back on. She sighed. After 3 weeks of an Australian art camp, she was ready to face the Baltimore Beltway again. She missed her folks and her girlfriend and her crazy photography teacher. He'd be interested in the 11 tolls of fill she'd filled.

Leah looked down at her camera. 7 shots left on that roll, and another 18 rolls left. She had been surprised that only 12 rolls of the 30 she brought had been used. 'I guess after you've seen one Australian city, you've seen 'em all,' she thought.

She drummed her knuckles on the arm rests absent-mindedly, thinking of Regan. 'We're gonna have a serious snog-fest when I get back.' She smiled inwardly, looking forward to said snog-fest.

She slid her feet out of her clogs and crossed her legs, picking at a scab on her ankle. She reached under the seat in front of her and found her carry-on, lugging out the giant CD binder. She selected a CD, popped it in her discman. The techno-rock sounds of Gravitation, a Japanese group, filled her ears and she resisted the urge to mouth the Japanese.

The plane started to vibrate, but Leah paid it no mind. The "buckle seat belts" light came on, but she didn't see it, her eyes were closed. The man sitting next to her tapped her shoulder and she slid her headphones off. He gestured to the sign and Leah stopped the music, buckling herself in just as the plane hit more turbulence.

A voice came over the intercom. "This is your captain speaking. We are experiencing some turbulence, so if everyone would please return to their seats, turn off all electronic devices and fasten their seatbelts, and we'll be through the turbulence shortly. Thank you."

Leah lowered her feet back into her clogs and slid her discman back into her carry-on. As she sat up the plane jolted more violently and the lights flickered. The stweardesses calmly went up the aisle, making sure everyone was buckled in, then disappeared again. The plane jolted again and the oxygen masks dropped down. Leah reached for hers and snapped the elastic on the back of her head. She gripped the arm rests tightly, then looped her camera strap around the seatbelt.

Suddenly, with a great heave, the entire tail section of the plane broke off and spiraled down. Leah's stomahcturned somersaults at the thought of falling so fast, while her brain screamed that she was lucky to be closer to the front.

The the plane was falling, dropping from the sky like a stone. she squeezed the arm rests harder and bit her bottom lip, whimpering softly. She refused to scream or show any fear. If she died, she wanted people to know she hadn't been afraid of it.

She opened her eyes without even realizing they were shut. The plane was still falling, but Leah knew there was no way she'd survive the impact. She let got of the arm rests and quietly waited for the end.

There was a jarring impact and she was wrenched from her seat. The belt unbuckled surprisingly easily and she gripped her camera strap as if it could keep her alive. But she hardly needed the life support.

The man next to her was dead. His eye seemed to have been pushed in and a trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. His other eye -- and his face -- wore a look of mild surprise. Leah quickly took a picture of him. Her first dead body.

Leah staggered up, looping the camera strap and carry-on over her shoulder. She crawled across the dead man and stepped in sand, her clogs filling with it. Sound had erupted around her. One of the engines was still going, people were screaming and crying, and waves were breaking on a beach.

Leah was alive, she should be happy. But after such a climactic event, it didn't seem right to be alive. She checked her camera, took a few pictures of the scene playing out before her.

A man stood dazed as something exploded behind him. He whipped around as it happened and Leah giggled, despite herself. She mentally kicked herself. 'I have a girlfriend,' she chided. 'Regan'd mutilate me if she saw that.' But Leah raised the camera and captured the confused man on film.

She put the lens cap back on and stuffed her camera into her carry-on so as little sand and salt as possible would get in. Then she set her bag under a tree where some other bags were piled and went back to help the other survivors.

-end chapter-

i'm not sure if the captain would really say that, but oh well. it's pretty convincing, i think. or something...