Cas never really understood why people hated flying. She found it exhilarating. New places, new experiences, not to mention the free soda. She loved all of those things, but what she loved most of all was how high the plane took her. She felt like she could see the whole world from up there. There was something else too. Cas always felt closer to her true self the farther the plane went into the air. Nothing weird, just a kind of comforting feeling.

That is, until the plane fell out of the sky.

The plane was bound for Berlin, Cas’ favorite city in the entire world. She had a job interview at the Berlin Zoo the next day and was far beyond excited. This was what she was thinking about when the plane jerked around the first time. Cas wasn’t phased by this in the slightest, turbulence was pretty much just a normal occurance to her during flights. She had been flying solo since she was 5 years old, this was nothing new to her. Coming out of her reverie Cas looked down and saw the wide open fields of northern Germany. Maybe an hour and a half left until she landed. The first thing she would do is find her favorite coffee shop and order her longed for latte macchiato. For some reason, she could never find anyone to make her one in the states.

The plane shook again, this time more forcefully. A woman down the aisle spilled her drink. Cas assumed the pilot would come on over the intercom and tell everyone that it’s just a bit of turbulence, to remain calm, but to please fasten their seatbelts..

Silence…

The plane shook again and this time it started to nose dive. Thrown back into her seat,Cas took a second to realize what was happening. Looking around wildly, half hoping to see some kind of superhero flying up to the window and catch the plane, all her eyes found was another girl her age staring at her in panic. She was in the seat directly across the aisle and one seat up from her. Instinctively Cas reached her hand out to her as she glanced out the window and saw the ground coming up fast. The second their hands touched, just before the plane hit the ground, Cas woke up.

The plane she was on gave a rocky shake and continued on its way. Cas looked out the window and saw the same open fields of northern Germany from her dream. She started to look around and see if that girl from her dream was sitting on the aisle seat in front of her when the plane shook again making a woman down the aisle from her spill her drink.

-”No, no, no, no no no no no. This isn’t happening!”-Cas said in a panicked voice as she started to crawl as far back into her seat as she could. She knew what was coming next, knew the plane  would crash, knew it was only seconds away.

This time it didn’t take Cas a second to realize what was happening when the plane started its nose dive. She was already freaking out. Desperate for any help at all she looked for the girl in the aisle seat. She wasn’t there, she was already up and standing next to Cas.

-”I know, I had the dream too. Grab my hand!” said the mystery girl.

So Cas grabbed her hand and looked out the window to watch the last few seconds of her life fade away.

This time, Cassandra Lake woke surrounded by hell. The ground was on fire, hot wind was swirling ash and dust around making it hard to see any details, but it was so quiet. After, checking herself for injuries, Cas forced herself up and took in the scene before her. She wasn’t in hell, she remembered the plane crash now. Looking down she saw the girl she had held hands with in the final moments of the crash. She seemed ok, but maybe unconscious. Cas  bent down and shook her to wake her. Touching her skin made Cas’ tingle. That’s odd, she thought. Maybe it’s just an after effect from the crash. Probably from all the adrenaline.

The young woman opened her eyes when Cas touched her and started to panic, still thinking they were in the middle of the plane crash. Cas leaned down to comfort her.

-“It’s ok, we made it. We’re on the ground”

-”Wh what? We did? I didn’t think the hand thing would work.” - The blonde girl asked.

-”Yeah, somehow we made it, look.” said Cas as she pointed to the wreckage, finally getting a good look herself. She started to take in more of her surroundings, initially it looks just like any plane crash you would see on the news or in the movies. But the closer she looked the clearer it became. Cas and the girl from the plane were standing in a clearing. No debris, no fire, no ash, not even the grass was disturbed. It was a perfect circle surrounding the two. Just then the girl stood up and decided it was time for introductions.

-”I guess we should introduce ourselves, since we survived a plane crash together. My name’s Billy, what’s yours?” Billy said with what Cas assumes is an Australian accent.

-”Cassandra but everyone calls me Cas. Are you hurt at all?”

-” No, I can’t believe it, but no.”

-”Yeah, me too. Do you notice anything weird about the crash?”

-”Um, no, not really… wait, are we in a circle? Looks like the eye of a cyclone. You know, where the isn’t any wind, or rain, or anything. That’s just what this looks like.”

-”Billy, I don’t know what just happened, but we should look for survivors.”

-”Oh my god, you’re right!” Said Billy as she started to walk away from the center of the circle.

Cas decides to start in just a slightly different direction so that she can keep an eye out in case Billy needs her help. She walked slowly towards the edge of the 20 foot circle she woke up in, wary that it might cause her harm somehow. But when she reached the edge and lifted her hand to touch what might be an invisible barrier, nothing happened. She walked right over it with no interference.

As soon as she crossed the barrier Cas began to choke on the ash and smoke pervading the air. The crash site was so much more real once she could hear the roar of the fires and the dying engines, and smell the burning jet fuel, and feel the incredible heat. She took a moment and looked back at the protected circle. It was gone. She could feel it somehow, and as she watched, the fire spread past the barrier and into the undamaged area. She started to zone out before realizing she should be looking for survivors, though she doubted there would be any.

She tried lifting and looking beneath debris, but if it wasn’t too hot, it was too heavy. And what she did see was very unsettling. Arms, legs, children’s toys, and shoes were sticking out from the debris all in a way that was suggestive of finality.

Cas glanced over her shoulder to make sure Billy was ok. She seemed to be fine, picking through the wreckage and calling out to any would be survivors. As Cas was turning back around to continue looking for what seemed less and less likely, she noticed an odd shimmer in the air. She stopped walking and tried to focus on it. It became clearer for just a second and then vanished, as if fighting her ability to focus on it, but not before she saw a face in the shimmer. A face that was both skeletal and beautiful at the same time. When the vision disappeared Cas felt a great weight light off her shoulders. A weight she didn’t know was there until that moment. Almost as if something or many somethings were reaching out to her and holding onto her for support. Using her to cling to.

Just at that moment, Billy startled Cas by reaching up and grabbing her shoulder to get her attention.

-” I don’t think anyone else survived, Cas.”

-”Really, it’s just us?”

-”Yeah, I think so. I’ve looked everywhere it’s safe to walk to, and I didn’t find anyone alive.”

-”Well, what are we supposed to do now?” Asks Cas

-”Uh, run. We need to run!” Billy says pointing over Cas’ shoulder.

-”What?! Why? What are you talking about?”

Billy grabbed Cas and forced her to turn around and look up. Another plane was falling out of the sky and was heading right for the two girls.

Cas immediately turned around and ran as hard and fast as she could away from where the plane was about to crash.

-”Oh my God, how is this possible? What is going on?!” Cas screamed as she and Billy were running away.

The plane was going to hit any second and the girls were nowhere near far enough away yet to be safe.

-”Grab my hand!” Said Billy.

-”What?!”

-”Just do it!!!” screamed Billy and grabbed Cas’ hand just as they heard a deafening crash, followed by,

by nothing.

Cas jerked around in astonishment, not believing that it was happening again.. What even are the odds for one plane let alone two planes to crash, not to mention  in the same exact spot within minutes of each other?

They were inside another perfect circle clear of debris and sounds from the crash.

Suddenly, Cas felt that odd pull again. She snapped her head up to try to find the source. All she could make out were those odd shimmering shapes again. She felt the pull lessen and knew the shapes would soon disappear. When this happened, something clicked in Cas’ mind.

-”All those people! Two planes worth of people, gone. Why is this happening?!”

She began to stumble around in a confused daze. Trying to piece together what had happened so far. Trying to come to terms with the amount of death she had witnessed in such a short amount of time. Trying to avoid the body parts that were scattered all around. Suddenly, Cas nearly fell over as the ground began to rumble. Cas couldn’t comprehend what was going on, sure her head would explode if anything else happened.

-”We have to get out of here! NOW!” Billy yelled as she grabbed Cas’ hand again and dragged her away from the wreckage. The ground was rumbling again, rumbling in a way that suggested impatience, hunger. The area underneath the wreckage was almost pulsing and looked like something was trying to break free, something huge. Cas struggled to remain on her feet as Billy pulled her farther and farther away from whatever was trying to break through.

Suddenly, a helicopter appeared over the horizon and Cas could hear Billy breath a sigh of relief.

-”They found us quickly. Come on, we need to keep moving away from the Turpis.”

-”Turpis? What’s a Tur…”

Just then, the ground finally gave way and a monstrous form emerged. It’s face had a malevolent look to it and it had a head like a shark’s that had been thrown into a wood chipper, the rest of the body was smouldering and reminded Cas of a bear except that it had eight limbs instead of four. It also had massive wounds on its hide that were filled with crawling things. But Cas didn’t have very long to take in the creature before it sniffed the air and swung its head around and found her and Billy. Cas couldn’t even move, her body and mind refused to function. Refused to believe what she was seeing.

Just as the monster began to run in their direction, Cas’ brain finally clicked back on and all she could do was scream. Suddenly, BIlly slapped Cas full on in the face.

-”What the hell?!” gasped Cas.

-”I need you to focus. We have to stay alive long enough for the Unit to get here.”

-”The Unit, what unit, what are you talking about?”

-”We don’t have time for this! We need to move!”

So they ran in the direction of the helicopter that had been driven from Cas’ mind by the hellish creature chasing them. They ran for what seemed like an eternity with the beast gaining on them every time Cas managed a look over her shoulder. It was gaining with unimaginable speed and everywhere one of its feet touched the ground, it left a smoking black circle.

Billy grabbed something out of a pack Cas hadn’t noticed until now and began fiddling with it as they ran. After a few seconds she tossed it behind the pair of them and Cas heard a loud explosion followed by a scream she would never forget. It sounded like something you would hear in a movie that had a town overrun by the apocolypse.

Suddenly, Cas felt a horrific burn on her back and only made it a few steps further before collapsing on the ground. It felt like her skin was being ripped off strip by strip and then the muscle underneath was being doused with acid. The creature was close enough to smell by this point and Cas wished she could forget that smell. It smelled of death and decay and something else she would later identify as sulfur.

That smell was the last straw for her mind. She passed out, but not before seeing the hell beast rear its head and bellow at the incoming helicopter. Trying desperately to swipe it to the ground with its enormous claws.

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