┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

FIVE YEARS AGO

After the disappearance of Flight 828 Cassie came home, she moved in with her parents. They were closer to her sister-in-law and niece. Cassie stayed in University but she only went to her classes and lectures. Cassie and her parents would visit Grace and Olive, her sister-in-law was barely holding herself together since the loss of Ben and Cal but Cassie didn't blame her.

Cassie had never been close with Ben and his family, she would see her niece and nephew twice a year, once on their birthday and the second time on Christmas. Cassie was only young when her niece and nephew were born, she was a few months short of her thirteenth birthday, so she was less of an aunt to twins and more of a family friend. But now that Cassie is six months pregnant, she craves the affection of family more than ever but a little bit too late.

Cassie waited as her phone rang. Cassie impatiently tapped the steering wheel of a car as she waited for the phone to be answered.

The line died out.

"Grace, I'm on my way to yours. Mum made you and Olive come cookies, give me a call back when you get this. Bye."

Cassie must have called Grace at least five times before she reached her home. Cassie sighed, she guessed that this would have to be a surprise visit. Cassie knocked on the front door.

No answer.

She knocked again.

"One minute!" She heard her young niece call out.

Cassie took out of her mother's cookies and took a bite as she waited for the door to be opened. Cassie's niece was holding herself together a lot better than her mother. Olive, only eleven years old, refused to let herself grieve. "Ow!" Cassie heard Olive cry after a loud bang echoed throughout the quiet house.

"Olive!" Cassie exclaimed as she grabbed the door handle, despite being twenty-four weeks pregnant, Cassie was prepared to barge the door open. The door opened as Cassie turned the handle, Olive and Grace must have left it open.

Cassie ran into the kitchen, following Olive's cries.

"Oh my god-" Cassie stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Olive nursing her badly bleeding hand.

Olive was sobbing as she held a napkin in her hand, "I'm sorry, I know mum doesn't like me using knives but I wanted to make her dinner, as a surprise. I'm hungry, so I thought she might be too."

"Olly-"

Cassie walked up to Olive and took the napkin off of her hand, she observed the cut. Cassie flinched at the sight of red liquid oozing from Olive's hand. She wiped it away and quickly looked at the cut, it wasn't deep, probably just a scratch but the awkward placement made the cut bleed a lot. "Where's your first aid kit?"

"On the top of the fridge. I tried to get it but I can't reach it."

Cassie nodded, she put the napkin back on Olive's hand and grabbed out the first aid kit. She looked in it, it needed to be restocked, there were no bandages or alcohol wipes but luckily there was a bandage.

Cassie grabbed the bandage and wrapped up Olive's hand, the eleven-year-old flinched as the cotton bandage tightly hugged her hand. "Olive... What do you mean you're hungry?"

Olive looked down as she pulled at the fabric threads, "Mum is extra sad today, she's been sleeping since last night."

"So you haven't eaten?"

Olive shook her head, "I made myself toast for breakfast and noodles for lunch. I was trying to make cheese and ham toasties for dinner but my hand slipped and I dropped the knife," she paused, "Mum hasn't eaten. Maybe you could help her?"

"Okay. But I'm going to help you first," Cassie finished wrapping Olive's hand before putting the bandage away. Cassie picked up the knife that was still on the floor, she looked at the cheese that Olive had attempted to cut, the block of cheese now soaked with blood. "How about we get some takeout? We can get your mum's favourite, bring some home for her."

"Queen M's?!"

Cassie chuckled as the girl's mood lifted, one moment ago Olive was cradling her bleeding hand and the next she was practically bouncing off walls. "Okay, Queen M's it is."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"Mum! We're home!" Olive's voice echoed through the silent house, the girl's grin turning into a frown. "Mum must still be sad."

Cassie looked up the stairs, had Grace even realised that Olive left? "How about you have a shower and get ready for bed? I'll go bring your mum some dinner."

Olive smiled, "Okay! But can we watch a movie first? I want to finish The Croods."

"Sure, but bed at 8, okay?"

Olive nodded before running to the bathroom.

Cassie walked through her brother's house. Before Flight 828's disappearance, Cassie had only been in front of the suburban home three times. The first time she had been to Grace and Ben's home was three years ago when they first bought it, Ben hosted a barbecue and invited Cassie. The second time was just over a year ago when Cal was diagnosed with cancer and the last time was when she discovered that Ben, Michaela and Cal were missing.

Cassie knocked on Grace's bedroom door, "Grace?"

No response.

"Grace, I'm coming in. Olive and I got you pizza."

Cassie opened the door to Grace's room, all the windows were shut and the only light in the room was coming from the television across from the bed.

"It has officially been six months since the disappearance of Montego Flight 828 and the 195 passengers that were on board-"

Cassie turned off the television causing the room to go completely black, Cassie turned on the bedroom light, and Grace flinched at the sudden bright light that illuminated the room. "They don't say about about them, I watched it in the morning." Grace groaned as she fell back on the bed, her eyes already growing exhausted. "Olive and I got you some pizza." Cassie placed the box on the bed, "Queen M's."

"Cal's favourite..."

Cassie smiled softly, "Olive's too."

"Thank you, Cass, but I don't think Pizza for breakfast is the best idea."

"Grace, it's 6:55 pm-"

Grace looked at the clock near her bed, "Oh- I must have been asleep for a while."

Cassie frowned, she wondered about Olive and how many days she had spent cooking and looking after herself since the disappearance of Flight 828. "Grace," Cassie sighed as she sat down on Grace's bed, "When I got here Olive had cut herself. It wasn't bad! But she was trying to make you and herself dinner."

Grace gasped, "Oh my god- Is she okay?"

"She's fine. I bandaged her cut, she won't need to go to the doctor but Grace- I'm worried about you, and Olive. You weren't awake when she cut herself, she yelled pretty loud but still you slept through it. What if it was deeper? What if I wasn't there?"

Grace looked down, a small sob escaping her lips. She raised her hands to her face in an attempt to shield herself from her much younger sister-in-law.

Cassie placed a hand on Grace through her blanket, "I'm not trying to be mean. I understand that you are going through something impossible-" Cassie's voice cracked as she thought about Ben and Michaela's her siblings who will never get to meet her child and then about Cal, her nephew whom she only knew a little bit about.

Grace shook her head, "We're all going through this. You lost your brother, sister and nephew, I lost my husband and son, Olive- she lost everything. My baby girl lost her father, her aunt and her twin brother, and every day that I'm stuck in this bed I feel like she's losing bits of me too."

"Grace, you're grieving-"

"I need help," Grace said, her voice determined. Cassie hadn't heard Grace so sure of anything since Cal was diagnosed with cancer. "Just for a little bit. Olive needs someone."

"What are you saying?"

"I know you were looking for somewhere to stay-"

"Yes. I'll move in. I have a lot of catching up to do."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

NOVEMBER 25th 2018

"Where is that ringing coming from?" Cassie asked herself as she followed the sound. For the past two minutes, Cassie had heard the nonstop sound of an iPhone ringing and it was driving her crazy.

Cassie looked inside of Olive's and then Cal and Kayla's, the ringing only got more faint through the wooden walls. Cassie walked past Ben and Grace's room, the ringing getting louder before fading again. Cassie looked in the room and saw Ben's phone ringing on the bed.

She didn't want to snoop but Cassie figured it must be an emergency. Cassie grabbed the phone and looked at the caller ID, SAANVI. "The doctor?"

"Hello?" Cassie answered the phone, she assumed Dr Bahl was calling about Cal's treatment.

The doctor was silent for a moment, maybe confused by why a feminine voice had answered Ben's phone or perhaps this was a conversation Cassie wasn't supposed to know about. "Hello, who's this?"

"Saanvi, hi! It's Cassie-"

"Cal's aunt! Hi."

Cassie smiled as the doctor remembered her, Cassie hadn't thought she made much of an impression on Saanvi. Cassie admires Saanvi, she's the same age as Michaela but so smart that she basically made a cure for cancer, one that is going to save her nephew. "You're calling Ben, is there something you want me to pass on to him?"

"Nothing important, just let him know that I need him to give me a call."

"Nothing important? You called him 8 times!"

Saanvi chuckled into the phone, Cassie wished she could bottle up the sound and listen to it on bad days. "What can I say? I'm thorough."

"Okay, well I'll tell Ben you were trying to call him. It was nice hearing your voice, Dr Bahl-"

"Saanvi. You don't need to call me Dr Bahl, Saanvi is fine. It's nice hearing your voice too Cassie, I hope to hear it again soon."

Cassie blushed, her cheeks turning red as if she were a schoolgirl hearing a compliment from her crush.

Saanvi hung up the phone.

"Ben!" Cassie yelled as she left his bedroom, she walked down the stairs, "Saanvi called-"

Cassie stopped mid-sentence as she saw Michaela enter the house. The cop looked at the twins and Kayla before back at Ben, "Hey, I've been calling you, and so has Saanvi," her voice was lowered, not a whisper but not as loud as Cassie had been a moment before.

Ben looked at his watch, "I lost my phone. It's late, what does she want?"

"She found something."

Cassie raised an eyebrow and found something. Why didn't they call Grace? She would need to know if Cal's doctor found something just as much as Ben. "W-" Ben stopped speaking as Cassie entered the room.

"I found your phone."

"Thanks, Cass."

Cassie nodded before giving Ben the phone. She stood there hoping for her siblings to finish their conversation but they didn't, they just looked at each other, as if waiting for Cassie to get the hint and leave. "No problem."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

michaela :
We arrested Kelly's killer. It was the housekeeper, she was in love with Patrick. It had nothing to do with Flight 828.

mj :
👍

That was not the text message MJ had expected to see at 8 p.m. and neither was:

michaela :
Meet us at NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, I'll explain more there.

MJ is starting to regret giving the Stone siblings her phone number, first at the mall and now nightly meetups at a random hospital. MJ asked Amber to give her a lift because Christy was sleeping, and the college student reluctantly agreed.

Amber didn't know what to say, for the last five minutes, MJ and Amber had been silently sitting in the car as Amber drove to the hospital.

"Are you going to ask it?"

"What?"

MJ shrugged, "Whatever you keep going to say before you stop yourself from doing."

Amber sighed, "Why are we going to a hospital? I know you said to meet up with your new friends but it's late, shouldn't your friends be at home? Also, the last time I gave you a lift somewhere no questions, a plane exploded!"

"I had nothing to do with the plane exploding!"

"I know, I know, but I still don't like you meeting your friends in the middle of the night."

MJ smirked, "Look, if anything bad happens I'll already be at a hospital, what's the worst that could happen?"

"That's not funny MJ."

"I disagree."

MJ couldn't help the faint smile that danced upon her lips, Amber Lahey cares about her, if you told MJ that five and a half years ago she would probably laugh in your face. MJ looked down at the phone Amber had given her, scrolling through her messages, and double-checking the directions to the hospital. "Can you tell me what you and your friends are doing?"

"Um-" MJ thought of a lie, "One of my friend's mum works at the hospital, she needed to stay with her so my other friends thought it would be cool to surprise her, so she wouldn't be so bored." MJ held her breath, hoping that Amber would believe the lie that MJ just came up with but to be honest MJ wouldn't even believe that lie.

Amber nodded, not asking anything else, she seemed happy with that answer which surprised MJ.

'Help!' MJ heard a girl's voice cry, she looked around, "Amber, did you hear that?!"

"Hear what?"

"Stop! Please-"

"There it is again!"

"MJ, I don't hear anything."

"There is a girl screaming for help," MJ frantically looked back and forth, left and right, she tried finding the lady who needed help but she couldn't see anyone. MJ listened to the lady yells, realising it sounded quieter as Amber drove. "Turn around."

"What?"

"Amber, turn around! I hear the yelling coming from behind us."

"There is no yelling."

"Amber!" MJ raised her voice, snapping at her best friend's girlfriend, "Please! Just turn around," her eyes pleaded. Amber turned the car around and drove back to where they came from. As Amber drove past a street the lady's cries for help echoed louder, "Turn down here." Amber sighed, indulging in the voices that only MJ could hear.

A few more streets Amber drove past that MJ told her to turn into, the university student was starting to get annoyed, thinking about how much fuel they were wasting by chasing an imaginary voice. Amber drove past another street, as she did MJ heard the lady yelling right in her ear, as if she was sitting in Amber's seat.

"I have no money," the lady said between sobs.

"Turn here!"

When Amber turned down the street, MJ and Amber gasped as they saw a middle-aged woman getting robbed by a young girl close to Amber's age. "How did you-"

MJ jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind her, "Hey!" She yelled as she ran up to the thief, the thief turned to MJ, revealing a gun she couldn't see before.

"I-I'll shoot!" The thief stuttered, her hands shaky as she pointed the gun at MJ.

MJ scoffed, "Go ahead, I'll probably come back in another five and a half years."

The thief lowered her gun, "You're a passenger?" The girl looked at MJ in disbelief, her eyes wide, she looked at MJ as if she was an Angel, or as most of New York believes, an alien.

The lady took this as her chance to run off, taking the bag that the thief was attempting to steal with her.

MJ nodded, "Yes, I'm a passenger. Does that mean something to you?" She asked, inching closer to the thief and her gun. MJ looked behind her, Amber was sneaking up to the thief with a heavy book that was in her car. MJ resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Amber, dumbfounded that she bought a book to a gunfight.

"You grant miracles, right? That's what Reddit says, I need a miracle, money, I need money."

"I can't-"

The thief raised her gun at MJ, "Do it!" She threatened, shaking the gun at her. MJ flinched, raising her hands in front of her face as if they could somehow stop a bullet.

Bam!

MJ heard the painful sound of a book smacking across the thief's head. MJ stared at Amber, perhaps bringing a book to a gunfight was exactly the right idea. "Did I kill her?"

MJ kicked the gun away from the thief before crouching down and checking her pulse, "Nah, she's alive. We should call 9-1-1."

"I already did."

"While a thief had a gun aimed at me?" MJ questioned.

"I wanted to make sure that the police and medics got here as soon as possible, in case anything bad happened."

"Thanks, I guess."

"What for?"

"The lift, and helping me not get shot," MJ chuckled pathetically as she looked at the girl who was passed out on the ground. She sighed, "I'm going to be late, aren't I?"

Amber bit her lip and MJ already knew her answer.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"Sorry I'm late," MJ said as she walked into Saanvi's lab, the three adults looked at MJ filled with questions, their eyes shining with curiosity.

Michaela was the first to speak, being the detective in the room, she knew the right questions to ask even when she was speechless. "You stopped an armed robbery?"

"It was a calling, I heard a woman's voice from far away crying and calling for help. I followed the voice and found a girl, probably 20 years old, trying to rob some middle-aged woman. I didn't see the gun when I jumped out of the car."

Ben shook his head, his arms crossed as he thought about the 100 different ways that MJ could have gotten hurt, "You should have called the police, or us. You're only young- You could've gotten hurt."

"So could've the lady!  You follow your callings how you want and I'll follow mine the way I want," MJ looked at Ben, her eyes challenging him to disagree with her. The dirty blond sighed, unhappy with MJ's lack of concern for her safety but he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

"So," MJ clapped her hands together as she turned to the doctor, "You needed to talk to us?"

"Yes," Saanvi remembered as she turned to her computer, "I don't have an answer to all this, but I have a theory. It's just a little bit out there."

MJ rolled her eyes, "I think we're past the point of looking for grounded theories."

Michaela smiled softly, "Yeah, I mean, I doubt anything in a textbook can explain how we haven't aged a day in the last five and a half years."

Saanvi pointed at her computer, MJ looked at a bunch of numbers and dots, she tried to understand what she was looking at as Saanvi explained her theory. "So, the marker in mine and Cal's blood could be a sign of ischemia. It occurs when the circulation is limited, but the potency of this marker is on par with a stroke victim."

"So you think we all had strokes? Michaela asked, she seemed just as confused as MJ which made the young girl feel slightly better.

"No, not exactly. If we were taken close to death- extremely close and then brought back- of the faucet of the blood circulation has been turned off and then suddenly it was turned on high, that's what it would look like."

"Interesting theory. How do we know for sure?"

"Right, so my thinking was if I had some brain tissues, I could test for that rebound. If they take a sample during an autopsy, maybe I could have some access."

Ben nodded, "You're thinking of Kelly Taylor?"

"Gross," MJ shuttered as she thought about Kelly Taylor's slimy brain tissue and Saanvi touching it.

"So I logged into the M.E.'s database. These are all the bodies that have been registered in the Long Island morgue in the last 48 hours. There is no Kelly Taylor. I've looked everywhere, she's not in the system. And then when I do search," Saanvi typed up Kelly's name before pressing search.

The computer came up with three big words, 'Search access denied.'

Michaela sighed at the dead end. MJ was beginning to wonder why Saanvi called them out here if she couldn't run the tests to prove her theory.

"That's why the feds stepped in. They wanted Kelly's body," Ben told the three girls, Michaela and Saanvi must have been thinking a similar thing because their expressions remained the same.

MJ crosses her arms, she knows that people think that the passengers are different, some believe they are aliens, and others like the thief MJ stopped earlier believe they are angels. Whatever they are, MJ doesn't care, she wants to be left alone but now as clear as day she realises that they'll never leave her alone. Not the reporters, not the conspiracy theorists and especially not the government.

Ben sighed as he looked at the computer, "Where is she?"