Kera's POV

I thought I had died as the cool breeze of the heavens hit me...

But no I survived because somehow, I managed to open one eye and then another.

I had blurry vision and I couldn't feel my body. It was like I was half dead and I felt very numb.

Flashback

I noticed that rose and I sat together while prof., Haruto and mark sat together in a three-seater, with mark sitting in the window seat somehow not looking like his usual self.

I looked at him and I couldn't decipher his feelings. I couldn't read him. He had an emotion that didn't suit him and the situation.

Why did I see sadness and pity in his eyes?

And soon our plane took off...

We were headed to Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island and unincorporated U.S. territory with a landscape of mountains, waterfalls and the El Yunque tropical rainforest.

I decided to put on my headphones and chill while I listened to my favourite songs.

Just after my second or third song, my professor informed me that he was going to the washroom.

we all were having lunch together when rose spoke up,

"gurl I never expected us to go to Puerto Rico, I thought we would be heading to some sorta boring building and help the colleagues but look at us going on an international trip wee hee"

we both laughed at the weird sound effect she made and Haruto scrunched up his nose in disgust

while Mark, well, he seemed unbothered.

looking at Mark's unbothered response I decided to lighten the mood a bit.

"hey wanna prank on that cold guy over there" I giggled while asking rose with my hand pointing towards Mark's sulky face.

"sure" rose replied with a mischievous smile mirroring mine.

"So what's the plan?"

"Do you have mayo?"

"Of course I do! " rose stood up and took out her dark blue backpack and pulled out the mayonnaise bottle and handed it over to me.

"so what do you plan on doing with this?" rose question while I took out a pack of Oreos from my handbag.

"I am gonna take out the cream and put some mayonnaise in it and tell Haruto to hand it over to mark" I giggled while I did the nasty job

"nice plan" rose giggled along with me while I handed it over to Haruto trying my best to control my laugh.

"Hey Haruto, pass it over to Mark over there," I spoke

Haruto pouted "where's mine?"

"don't worry I got more" I answered whilst showing the oreo packet.

Haruto beamed with joy and gave the biscuit to mark

Mark took the biscuit from him and both of us were eager to see his reaction and we surely weren't disappointed.

Marks face scrunched up in disgust towards our teammate while Haruto had a questionable look on his face.

Rose and I couldn't stop laughing. we legit made the passengers in front look at us with a weird eye but we didn't mind.

"What's wrong with you?" Mark spoke in a cold tone and looked at me and rose with an angry face.

This didn't seem like the usual cheerful, bubbly mark who made lame jokes in our class. He sounded different, I couldn't tell if he was Mark or not.

"ok it was my plan, you didn't seem like your usual self and I thought something might be bothering you. so I decided to lighten up your mood. "

"Mind your own business, Akera" He spoke in a cold tone as he stood up from his seat and headed to the washroom situated at the front of the plane.

"Hey, you alright?" Rose enquired while putting her right hand on my shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Wow never knew mark could be this cold." rose spoke while looking at me.

"Yea I know right"

"He usually loves pranks and pretty much laughs when his friends play and prank on him. he doesn't mind at all" She spoke while thinking hard.

After Mark had gone professor returned to his seat.

"Wheres mark" he enquired Haruto as he pointed to the vacant seat beside him.

"He's gone to the washroom sir" he replied while prof. nodded his head adjusting in his seat.

Everyone was back to their business. Prof. was making the itinerary, Haruto was playing offline games, Rose was reading the magazine and I decided to take a nap.

.

.

.

Massive turbulence was what made me wake up suddenly.

The scene around me was frightening. The lights had dimmed to Red, some people screaming, some were praying to god.

Everyone panicked and the oxygen masks fell from the top. It was one of those scenes from the movies, air hostesses helping people out with the survival equipment, the people standing up from their respective seats, some collected important belongings, it was equivalent to a small scale stampede.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked my professor who tried to gather all of us.

"I don't know what exactly happened but I have been told that some unidentified object hit the plane's right-wing at a very high speed and now our plane has lost a wing."

It was all such a shock to me. A while ago I was sleeping peacefully and now everyone's a mess.

"Has anyone seen Mark?" Prof. enquired in a clear voice

"No sir the dude hasn't been back from the washroom and it's been a long time since he went there" Haruto spoke and without wasting any time we started searching for Mark

"BRACE YOURSELF, BRACE YOURSELF WE ARE APPROACHING THE LAND I REPEAT BRACE YOURSELF WE ARE APPROACHING THE LAND" The speakerphone boomed.

"COME HERE AKERA!" prof. shouted as he stood with rose and Haruto.

I ran to them like anything pushing anyone who came in my way but before I could reach them everything went black.

PRESENT

My body ached like anything and I noticed that I laid right under the cockpit of the now crashed plane.

I tried to grab ahold of my senses as I tried to move my head to get a rough picture of what exactly had happened.

people lying everywhere. parts of the plane shattered all over the place. It seemed like the plane had crashed on a seashore.

I tried getting up and dusted the sand on my body and was shocked by the wounds I had got. I tried searching for my teammates and of course prof. too but I couldn't spot anyone.

But then, someone tapped on my shoulder and I saw Mark but what surprised me that there was some kind of weird creatures that stood beside him and behind him as well.

I spotted all of them unconscious.

My mind was going haywire.

who were all these creatures?

where are they from?

how is his body spotless post-crash?

What is his weird place?

thousands of questions filled my head but before I could ask them mark suddenly spoke.

"I'm sorry" he backed away as I suddenly felt someone inject something on my right arm.

I didn't exactly get what happened. my vision started to get blurry again and I saw Mark on the verge of tears.

I looked at the person who was behind me and I did not expect to get betrayed like this.

Raelynn, why?