Chapter 11

       Sweat running down my back, my heart was beating while I stepped slowly closer and closer to the gate of my demise.  I whispered, ¨Hey mom?¨

        ¨Yes, Sweetheart?¨ she answered.

       ¨Did you get a row just for us?” I asked.

       “No. You know how we are tight on money right now,” she responded. Still under all of the makeup she had put on, I could see the purplish tint under her eyes. I felt bad for my mother; time and time again she worked overtime, but she never got the money she deserved. 

       My mind zipped back to the thought that we were going to be seated next to a complete stranger. Now my hands started to shake. My heart started beating faster. My steps got uneasier to take the closer I got. 

       “Here we are!” my mother exclaimed. I was ready to jet back to our car, but I remembered we had taken the bus here. Now I was torn between sitting next to a stranger and my mom or leaving and taking the public bus by myself. I glimpsed at the person that was already seated. Her hair was in a high ponytail. Her outfit looked like it was from the 1980s. With its bright colors she was wearing, I thought I was going to go blind. 

       My mother had already relaxed in her seat with her magazines. I realized that I would have to sit at the end where everyone passed. “Aren’t you going to sit, Isabella?” my mom asked. I slowly slid in. Then a mountain of people strolled down the aisles. I tumbled down into the scratchy chair. The aroma of my mother's perfume was intoxicating; it started to dance around the plane happily, causing everyone to plug their noses.

       People were now settled in their seats. I could see clearly now around me without all those people. The cool, calming environment made it seem like there was no one on board. The smooth, curved ceiling above with the cubes hanging down. Right under it, the  rows of neatly laid seats. The chair that messed it all up, the scratchy stuff and the metal being ice cold. It was the second thing bothering me, the first being the smell.  

       “Honey?” my mother asked. 

       “What?” I whispered.

       “That young lady's name is Mary, and she is a dance teacher,” she reported. 

       She sounds like one of those teachers that is introducing a new student to the class. I wonder what type of food they have here? Ew, my mother’s perfume seems to get worse when I sniff it each time. I wish I could just teleport to my grandmother and not have to ride this flight, I thought.  

       “Aren’t you listening to me! As I was saying, aren't you interested in dancing?” she added. I blushed. I hadn’t told her, but she must have heard me when I was talking to my older sister. 

       I wish she could be here, but she is in college now, and she can’t miss this week at all. She said she had a big presentation or something tomorrow and needed to be there in person. She sounded really nervous when telling me it though. At first I thought she was lying, but she couldn't because she loved grandma’s cookies, and she told us she was going to make some for us, I thought. Now the flight attendants were announcing we were going to Los Angeles. I was breathing heavily. I decided to try to distract myself by looking at my watch, counting each second. 

       At 8:15 we were finally taking off. I continued to count the seconds on my watch, and slowly I drifted asleep. 

       I was awakened by shouting and people sprinting up the plane towards the cockpit. People started crying and screaming. 

       “Honey, we've been told that the North Tower has been hit by a plane!” my mother shouted. 

       I thought to myself, What did I hear the North Tower from? Then it hit me. That’s where mother got fired from; she spilled hot coffee on a person. The boss was also already fed up with her. But it was just an accident. That's why all this must be just an accident. 

       The stranger we had been sitting next to was looking around while tapping a number on her flip phone. My heart started pounding. My hands started shaking. I frantically looked at my watch; it was only 8:31. My mouth became dry as a desert. 

       Then I was ripped out of my seat like velcro. The guy wrapped his arm around my neck like a snake. Tears started dashing down my face. My mom right away tried pulling the man's arm off of me. I kept trying to gasp for air, but the air was not coming; it was running away from the man as well. Another man ran up behind my mother. I thought he was going to help me.With a blink of an eye the man pulled out a knife from his left pocket. I wanted to scream at her, to run, but when I did no voice came out. With one woosh…  

       I peered down to my mother's torso to see a knife sticking out. Blood ran down her leg. I didn't think about it for another second. I bit down on the man's arm trying to go to my mother. But as I did, the man just let go of my neck and grabbed my torso. With the other arm he put a cold blade on my neck; I froze and gazed at my mother. They shoved me to the front of the plane, and the man tore the blade out. My mother screamed. I looked at the blood pool out of her body and people ran over to her. Then they turned me around to a door.

        I was now stuck in front of the plane while the other man picked the lock. When the door opened they shouted at the pilot. I couldn´t understand a word they said; I was too worried about my mother. They repeated what they said to the pilot, but this time I got one word, kill. The pilot slowly stood up with his hands up over his head and was pushed to the back of the plane with the others. The man then removed the knife from my neck and held me by my arm. Then I was tossed to the floor like a rag doll. My head was spinning. I dragged myself into one of the rows, and there I found the stranger on the phone. 

       “I love you, Sweetheart. I have to say bye now. I love you so much,” Mary spoke into the phone. She broke down in tears. On the floor I found a piece of a mirror. I looked at my purplish neck, and it looked like he had tried to take my head off. I looked at the number seat we were in.

       “B3,” I whispered. The seat was D4, meaning I would have to go farther down. I couldn´t believe that the woman who was sitting next to us ran up to the B section, abandoning my mother. I tried to stand up, but to my surprise I found a piece of glass in my right ankle. I remembered that my health teacher told me not to remove an embedded object in the body, so I didn´t. Instead, I tried to use my arm to get up, but my left arm sent unbearable pain throughout my body. I took off my jacket to reveal my arm was swelling up. He almost broke my bone. I took my right arm and left leg and pushed up onto a seat. I slowly moved my way to the D section. When I got there I found our seat with my mother not there,  only a puddle of blood, with a trail of smeared blood to the back of the plane. When I got there I found my mother with two of the passengers. “Mom!” I cried. I limped over to her. 

       “Oh no. What did they do to you?”  she whispered.

       “I’m fine, Mom. You're the one that needs the help,” I told her. I used the rest of my strength to pull myself a little just to see them. There were four men in the front of the plane and a man in the middle of the plane.

        I looked at one of the other seats and found a man helping another passenger. “Hey, can you help us?!” I asked. The one man in the middle started to move his way to us. He stepped into my seat. A shiver ran down my spine. Then he showed his knife and walked back to the middle. 

       “Are you insane? You’re going to get killed,” the man whispered. It was the man that was helping the passenger. 

       “Are you a doctor?” I asked. 

       “Yes. Now let me see your arm!” he demanded. 

       “I don’t need help, she does,” I whispered while I pointed to my mom. I slid myself to the side. 

       “Okay, let me see,” he wipered. His eyes widened.  “You're right, she needs a lot of help, but you're next.” 

       “No, help her! I am fine; she needs more help than me,” my mother murmured. She sounded weaker than before. 

       “No, you need help,” he whispered. “I need your jacket,” the man demanded. I untwisted the jacket from my waist and handed it to him.  “I Am going to need you to put pressure on this.” I peeked over the man's back, seeing mother holding my jacket on her side. The pink fabric of the jacket slowly turned red. I glazed at the people hiding in the other side of the row. Fear was all I saw in their eyes. They looked like five ghosts held in a corner.

        I viewed the plane again, but instead of its calming look, it was now an apocalypse. There were seats ripped, and the ceiling had scratches on it; the cubes that were hanging were now open with clothes ripped out. The floor was decorated with blood and people’s belongings. I peeked over the man’s back.  seeing my mom there, she looked at me, crying. Then the man whooshed around.

       “It’s your turn,” he whispered.

       “No, she’s not done; she’s still losing blood,” I whispered.

       “That's the best I could do,” the man muttered. I was now sobbing. I now knew that I was going to die unless we landed. The man guarded my foot and took my shoe; he cut off my sock. My attention was caught by seeing my sock; its soft white cloth was now bright red. I didn’t even realize that the glass was ripped out by something. I glimpsed down the aisle. One seat down the same piece of glass was sticking out of a seat. 

       “Can I please look out the window?” I asked. 

       “Okay?” he answered. I crawled over to the window.

       “Mom?” I whispered. I waited a minute, but she didn’t answer. I whipped around. I froze like a statue covered out of fear. The man was pounding on her chest. My mom sat lifeless on the ground. “MOM!” I screamed like an alarm clock. The man stopped pounding, my jaw shaking. The man slowly pressed down on the floor and moved it back and forth. I couldn’t take it. 

       I jetted up to the hijackers, and I tore the piece of glass out of the seat; one of them was blocking the door.  It was the same one that had killed my mother. He held up his knife at my neck. With no thought, I ran and stabbed the piece of glass into the side of his neck. 

       Blood ran down his neck, then all the way to the floor. I twisted it out of his neck, and with a clunk,  he fell to the floor. I stepped over his body into the cockpit. My eyes wouldn’t work; they were filled with rage. I stared out the window, seeing where my mother used to work.  One of the towers in New York. The closer and closer we got, smoke filled the air. 

        What have I done? Mom wouldn’t want this? My mom wouldn’t have any problems if it wasn’t for me. I’m the problem, I thought. Tears ran down my face. Two seconds went by,  and we went head first into the tower. 

        Everything went black. My soul slowly left my body. I drifted asleep, but this time I wasn't waking up, not even to yelling.

-Amelia K.