His heart was pounding out of his chest. He couldn't miss that flight. His life depended on it.

"STOP!" he shouted as he reached 14B. "I need to get on that flight!"

"Do you have your boarding pass, sir?" asked a woman standing behind the desk at the terminal, as Jackson was about to run past her.

He stopped to look at her. "My boarding pass?"

"Your ticket, sir," she said, becoming frustrated.

"Oh yes. Right," Jackson said with a weak smile, snapping back into reality, as he pulled the ticket out of his computer bag pocket.

"Okay," she said, ripping a portion off the ticket. "Show this to the man over there where you board. Have a nice flight."

"Yeah, thanks," he replied hesitantly.

So, that was it? I've made it onto the flight. That simple?

Jackson shook the question off. It didn't matter. He was now on flight 1468 heading to Baltimore.

Sigh.

He stepped onto the plane and looked at his ticket. 12D. He scanned the seats for a label that matched the sequence on his ticket. After a few moments of searching, he finally found row 12. He looked over to scan the seats.

A. B. C. D.

"Oh great," he thought. "I get the inner seat. Surrounded by people." He gave the woman in 12C a casual glance as he proceeded to put his computer bag in the overhead storage. She stared at him with a curious stare but, soon returned down to her newspaper, with a smile on her face. Jackson was fully aware of the attention he was receiving.

"Excuse me," he said as kindly as possible.

"Oh, sure thing," she said, standing up and letting Jackson scoot by her.


He brushed past her and sat down in his seat. Jackson began adjusting himself for the 3 hour flight, buckling his seatbelt, when the woman interrupted.

"Hi, I'm Sandra. I see we're going to be seat buddies," she said, chuckling. "Nice to meet you," she continued, sticking out a hand to shake his. The plane began to take off down the runway.

"Jackson. Pleased to meet you," he returned, staring straight ahead at the television screens displaying 'Fresh Air'.

"Where in Maryland are you headed to?"

"To visit family, in western Maryland," he said, continuing to lie with the family scenario. "You?"

"Oh, me? I'm headed to Columbia. I work for a hotel called Lux Atlantic in Miami, Florida. I don't know if you've ever heard of it," she replied.

"Nope, I can't say I have. I don't get over to Florida too much," Jackson replied, less and less engaged in the conversation by the second.

"I see. Well, the hotel is under new management recently. A new woman named Lisa Reisert. Things were looking promising. Hotel profit sky-rocketed. And just yesterday, Lisa had a death in the family. She had to leave Miami and come attend the funeral in Texas and stay with relatives. I was sent there to help her cope a little until she returns home on Friday. But, that's beside the point," she paused. "I'm headed to Columbia to a meeting of interests in stocks from the Lux Hotel. Get some investments. Maybe get a couple more hotels put up along the eastern seaboard. I'm a behind-the-scenes businesswoman, myself."

Jackson felt the plane take off the ground.

"Very interesting. I wish you and the hotel the best. As for me, I think I'm going to get some sleep. I didn't sleep at all last night. You don't mind, do you?" Jackson questioned, hoping she'd stop talking.

"Oh, not at all. But, before you go to sleep, I just wanted to tell you that you have amazing blue eyes. I'm sure you hear that a lot," she said, gazing deeply at him.

"Thank you, Sandra," he said, as he smiled as realistically as possible.

"Night, Jackson," she said, returning her attention back to her newspaper situated on her lap.

"Night."

Soon, Jackson was out like a light but, he didn't get the sleep he intended. He didn't sleep well at all, in fact.

And just yesterday, Lisa had a death in the family.

Jackson's head became clouded with thoughts of him killing his mother and father, which made him rather violent in his sleep. He began punching things and kicking things in a state of unawareness. He started cursing, shouting, and screaming until he was awakened by an outside force. He was being shaken. He slowly lifted his eyelids and looked around. He was still on the airplane; everything was silent. They had landed. Jackson continued to look around until he noticed all eyes were on him. Some people had their hands clasped over their mouths. Some people looked like their eyes were about to bulge out of their heads. He didn't understand what was happening or what had happened until he looked down and saw his hands covered in blood. He jumped up out of his seat and frantically looked around again. His eyes hit Sandra's seat. It was empty. She was gone. The only thing that now occupied the seat of 12C was the blood stains that had been absorbed into the matted fabric.

What have I done?