2:13 Leaving, On a Jet Plane

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2:13 Leaving, On a Jet Plane

Despite the airport’s busy appearance, the gate for the red eye to Milan was a ghost town. Chad and James boarded the plane to find that they had three rows between them and the nearest passenger. “Is this normal?” asked Chad. He didn’t know much about air travel, and everything he had heard painted it as a wholly unpleasant experience.

     “Not in the slightest.” James reclined his seat, clearly ready to sleep his way through yet another long journey.

     An attendant walked up as he did so. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to keep that up until we’ve taken off.” The man wore a friendly smile, but there was a crisp authority behind it that warned Chad not to cross him.

     James obeyed and brought his seat back up, yawning as he did so. “Sorry, it’s been a while.”

     “Not a problem, sir. Can I get either of you a pre-flight cocktail?”

     “I think that’s exactly what we both need. Whiskey work for you, Chad?”

     Chad nodded.

     The attendant smiled. “I’ll be right back.”

     James turned to Chad. “I love flying international.”

     Several whiskeys later, they were airborne. Chad had nearly puked through an extremely bumpy takeoff but had steeled himself at the last minute. High above the clouds, he looked back at the fading lights of the city. The power grid blinked for a minute, or at least he swore it did. Most of the lights went out, leaving an outline of a winking skull. Chad shook his head to clear it and the image was gone.

     “Everything alright?” James was slurring his words, but that hadn’t stopped the flight attendant from bringing more drinks.

     “Just a bit jumpy, I think. Running into heralds of the apocalypse tends to put me on edge.”

     “Yeah, I think I know what you mean.” James took a long sip from a fresh cup.

     The whiskey dulled Chad’s nerves but couldn’t slow his racing mind. “What do you think happened to Joe?” he blurted.

     James let out a heavy sigh and stared out the window, clutching his whiskey close to his chest. “Whatever it was, he’s gone now. I just hope there’s somewhere better than the Land of the Dead for him.”

     “What’s wrong with the Land of the Dead?” A few days earlier, Chad had been certain there wasn’t anything after death. The idea of an entire realm awaiting him once the curtains closed was exhilarating.

     “It’s dismal, cold, and has too many people I’d rather not see again.”

     “You talk about it like you’ve been there.”

     James raised his eyebrows.

     “No…” Chad started in disbelief.

     James looked around the plane to make sure no one else was paying attention to them. When he was satisfied, he lifted his shirt, revealing a horrible, twisting scar that ran across his stomach. “I’m not even supposed to be here right now.” His eyes took on a glassy, far-away look. “Had it not been for the intervention of a persistent drunk and an old friend…” he trailed off. “Well, I guess if not for them, I’d still be dead, sitting around a musty table with my cousins playing cards.”

     James’s sentence hit Chad in confusing waves. Not only did he have to contend with the fact that people lived on after death, but now they could return. “You died?” he asked, not sure of what else to say.

     James nodded and finished his glass. “On a cold mountaintop far from here. Climbing that mountain was Hell in its own right and I was hoping that when the lights finally went out, I would get some sleep. Instead, I blinked and found myself in the equivalent of an underworld slum with a bunch of ‘cousins’ I had never met.” He chuckled. “I guess they weren’t so bad, but there was no rest, and no great meaning to it all. Life just continued in a place that was slightly worse than where I had been before.”

     The two of them went silent. James closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the headrest. He breathed deeply, holding a hand to the scar on his stomach. “Joe deserves better than that,” he said, eventually. “I’ve seen an angel now, so maybe there is another place. If so, I hope he’s there.”

     Chad lifted his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

     James swirled the ice around his empty cup and clacked it to Chad’s. “He’s a stubborn bastard. If he’s not in Heaven, I’m sure he’s giving management Hell.”

     They both laughed, but quickly lapsed into an uneasy silence. Joe had been with them every step of the way, and Chad felt unprotected without his guiding words. “I’m going to miss him.” The words choked in his throat, but Chad managed to get them out.

“Me too.” James pushed the button on his seat and leaned it back. “Best we get some sleep. We’ve got a long road ahead of us, and I for one don’t want to waste my energy on an in-flight movie.”

     Chad unbuckled and went to the row next to them. He laid across three seats and pulled a scratchy, complimentary blanket over himself. The hum of the airplane was calming. His thoughts drifted to the remaining horsemen and how to defeat them, but no solutions came to him. In his last moments before sleep, Chad saw an angry cherub dancing across his vision. It was stark naked and very proud of what it was displaying.

     “Remember the push broom, nimrod.” The cherub winked, stuck out its tongue and showed Chad its ass. “Now fuck off to sleep, dummy.”

     Chad did just that, but rather than slipping off into an endless, restful, black abyss, he was haunted. Almost immediately, he could hear Death’s grating laughter as if he were in the seat next to him. Chad tried to open his eyes but found only darkness. Unsure if he was asleep or awake, he shoved his hands forward, reaching out for anything, and found empty space.

     The grinding laughter came from the darkness again, and death revealed himself. Bone white hooves tramped on the abyss surrounding them like it were solid. “What did I tell you when we first spoke, Chad?”

     Chad could hardly remember anything. A few airplane drinks had seen to that. The day was nothing more than a convoluted blur, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep it off.

     “Drunk again, I see.” Death clucked something in the innards of his skull, making a hollow popping sound.

     Chad flinched.

     “I told you to surrender and I would make death quick for you. You’ve already lost one, and I can assure you, his death was painful.”

     The thought of Joe brought a spark of anger to Chad’s stupor. “You’re a real motherfucker, you know that?”

     “I’ve been called worse.” The same hollow laugh floated through the ether once more.

     Chad felt his hairs standing on end, but the anger boiled through the fear, rushing upward. “So, why are you here? You’ve already warned me, killed one of my friends, and thoroughly creeped me out.” Chad made an effort to cross his arms but couldn’t tell if it was working in the inky blackness of the dream.

     Death chuckled.

     “You laugh a lot for a man in the business of death.”

     “Keeps me young.” Death clacked his fingers together. “I get it, you’re tired of me appearing in your dreams, but I had to think of a way to keep you distracted.”

     In the distance, Chad heard someone scream and a cacophony of sound. His neck prickled. “What is that?” His voice was trembling and he couldn’t stop it. Something was very wrong here, even if he couldn’t quite catch it.

     “Oh, I’m crashing the plane.” Death snapped his fingers and Chad’s eyes flew open. Sound rushed in like an angry tidal wave, assaulting him from every angle. Shortly after came the sensation that he was partially if not totally weightless. Still fighting off the drunkenness from his whiskey, Chad pushed himself to a sitting position.

     He floated upward and realized in his hurry to sleep, he hadn’t strapped himself in. The cabin was chaos. Luggage flew around the fuselage, smashing into everything. The man that had been serving them drinks was trying to instill calm in the passengers as he pushed his way down the aisle. Chad could see tears in his eyes, but the man never wavered in his calm demeanor.

     “Everyone stay calm and get into the brace position.”  He bent down a tightened a seat strap on a screaming woman.

     Chad thought of Death’s laughter and felt the anger mixing with his fear. You son of a bitch.

     James was strapped firmly into his seat, muttering to himself. “Not again, not again, not again.”

     Out the window, the engine was spewing orange flames and black smoke. Chad tried to look for how far off the ground they were, but the scenery was all black. The plane hitched and tilted forward, sending a heavy-looking suitcase spinning towards the flight attendant. It struck him in the forehead, splashing blood on the tan ceiling and knocking the man unconscious.

     Chad’s whole body went numb. Surely this had to be happening to someone else, or perhaps it was just another one of Death’s morbid dreams. That had to be it. He’s just trying to spook you, because you’re getting too close, Chad reassured himself. This notion gave him the confidence to float over to James. A piece of luggage flew past his head, missing him by inches and collided with an overhead bin.

     James looked up at him in a mix of shock and dismay. “How the fuck are you so calm?!” he screamed.

     Chad lowered himself in the seat next to James and strapped in. His heart was hammering at a million miles a minute, and he tasted metal on the back of his tongue, but panicking wouldn’t help anyone. He tried to convince himself that it was all a trick, but if it was, the sensations were very real. “I’m pretty sure this is all a hallucination from the horseman in an attempt to throw us off the trail.”

     James took a break from weeping into his hands momentarily. “You think so?”

     The more Chad thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense.

     There was another set of screams from the front of the cabin as the second engine burst into flames.

     Chad looked around, noticing the cinematic quality of the events. “It’s all a bit ‘Hollywood plane crash’, isn’t it?”

     “Yeah, I guess it is.” James still seemed unconvinced. His knuckles gripped the sides of the seat like a vice.

     “Just sit back and wait it out.” Chad leaned back in his seat, putting his arms behind his head. “Everything is going to be fine.”

     In that same instant, there was immediate, jarring sensation that the plane had stopped moving, followed by the loudest sound either of them had ever heard. The cabin before them folded in like an accordion, running up to meet them. There was a flash of horrible pain and Chad’s world went dark.