Chapter 4 - THE THING OUTSIDE THE WINDOW
Every survival instinct I possessed told me not to look.
That was exactly why I almost did.
A human voice was speaking through an airplane window at thirty thousand feet.
The voice of a woman I'd watched disappear minutes earlier.
"Garrett."
Lily stretched both hands toward the glass.
"Mommy's here."
Mara ripped a galley blanket from a storage compartment and threw it over the window.
The voice stopped.
Arthur sagged against the wall.
I stared at Mara.
"Was that her?"
"No."
"It sounded exactly like her."
"That's what this place does."
"What place?"
She hesitated.
"The Hold."
"The what?"
"That's what Arthur calls it."
Arthur managed a weak smile.
"Needed to call it something."
The turbulence intensified.
Cabin service drawers rattled in their locks.
Lily began whimpering.
I bounced her gently without even thinking.
"How do you know the baby's mother wasn't real?"
Mara's eyes flicked toward the covered window.
"The real woman wanted Lily to escape."
"And that thing wants her back."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Lily was never supposed to survive the original crash."
There was that word again.
Original.
"Who was her mother?"
Mara looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked away.
"Tell me."
Mara finally answered.
"Her name was Hannah Mercer."
The name meant nothing to me.
At first.
Then something moved at the edge of memory.
Mercer.
I had heard that name.
Years earlier.
Family stories.
My mother talking quietly after Thanksgiving dinner.
A photograph in an old album.
I looked down at Lily.
"No."
Mara noticed my reaction.
"You recognize it."
"My mother had a friend named Hannah."
Arthur closed his eyes.
Mara went very still.
"What was your mother's name?"
"Elaine Cole."
Arthur whispered something under his breath.
I heard it anyway.
"Oh, God."
"What?"
He pulled a folded photograph from his coat.
It was creased almost beyond recognition.
Four young adults stood in front of an airport departure board.
A man I didn't know.
A young Arthur.
A woman with auburn hair.
Mara.
Exactly as she appeared now.
And a woman holding a baby wrapped in yellow.
Hannah.
My heart stopped.
Standing beside Hannah was another woman.
My mother.
Young.
Smiling.
Pregnant.
I took the photograph with shaking hands.
"Where did you get this?"
Arthur's voice cracked.
"1999."
"My mother wasn't on that flight."
"No."
"But she was at the airport."
He nodded.
I remembered family history now.
My mother had been pregnant with my sister Emily in 1999.
I had been four years old.
Dad had taken me to Grandma's house while Mom went to Denver to meet a college friend.
"She told me her friend disappeared," I whispered.
Mara nodded.
"Hannah asked Elaine to come to the airport because she was scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Her husband."
The plane dropped.
My stomach rose into my throat.
Lily screamed.
I braced against the counter.
The intercom crackled.
"Passengers, please remain calm."
Mara checked her watch.
10:03.
"Rule Six."
I unfolded the paper.
RULE SIX — AT 10:03, THE CHILD WILL BEGIN SCREAMING.
Do not cover her mouth.
Do not allow anyone wearing a pilot's uniform to touch her.
If the cabin lights turn red, count backward from twenty.
If the child says a word—
I looked at Lily.
"She's six months old."
Mara's face tightened.
"Keep reading."
—the word will tell you who is lying.
Red emergency lights flashed on.
Arthur immediately began counting.
"Twenty."
Mara joined him.
"Nineteen."
I clutched Lily.
"Eighteen."
Something moved behind the curtain.
"Seventeen."
A shadow.
Tall.
Wearing a peaked cap.
"Sixteen."
The curtain slowly parted.
"Fifteen."
A pilot stepped into the galley.
Mid-fifties.
Silver hair.
Four stripes on his shoulders.
Blood covered the front of his white shirt.
"Fourteen."
His eyes found Lily.
"Thirteen."
He smiled.
"Everything is under control."
"Twelve."
Mara shifted between him and me.
"Go back to the cockpit."
"Eleven."
The captain ignored her.
"Mr. Cole, you've been frightened unnecessarily."
"Ten."
He extended a hand.
"Give me the child."
"Nine."
Lily shrieked.
"Eight."
The captain's smile widened.
"Seven."
His jaw began opening farther than it should.
"Six."
Mara whispered, "Don't stop."
"Five."
He stepped closer.
"Four."
Lily suddenly went silent.
"Three."
Her brown eyes stared directly at the captain.
"Two."
She opened her mouth.
"One."
The red lights disappeared.
Normal lighting returned.
The captain stood three feet away.
Lily lifted one trembling finger.
And said her first word.
"Liar."
The captain's face collapsed.
Not emotionally.
Physically.
His skin sagged like wet paper.
Mara shoved me backward.
"Run."
"Where?"
"Forward."
"Past the passengers?"
"It's our only chance."
Arthur tore open the curtain.
The cabin was empty.
Every passenger had vanished.
Rows of abandoned clothes lay across seats.
Phones.
Shoes.
Half-finished drinks.
But no people.
Mara pushed me into the aisle.
"Go!"
We ran.
I held Lily tight.
Row nineteen.
Eighteen.
Seventeen.
This time the numbers moved correctly.
Behind us, something screamed from the galley.
The captain.
Except the scream multiplied into dozens of voices.
I glanced backward.
A black mass poured into the aisle.
Faces pushed out from inside it.
Passengers.
The businessman.
The old woman.
My father.
Hannah.
All screaming.
Arthur grabbed my shoulder.
"Don't look!"
We ran faster.
At row fourteen, I saw my seat.
My carry-on was gone.
My paper was gone.
In its place sat a little boy.
Four years old.
Brown hair.
Red dinosaur sweatshirt.
I stopped so abruptly Mara collided with me.
The child looked up.
I knew that sweatshirt.
I had owned it.
"Garrett?" the boy asked.
My childhood face stared back at me.
"You left me here."
I couldn't move.
Mara slapped me.
Hard.
"That isn't you."
The boy began crying.
"Mom said you'd come back."
My chest broke open.
I had memories of being four years old.
Grandma's house.
Waiting by the window.
Mom returning the next morning.
Crying harder than I had ever seen an adult cry.
She had hugged me for almost an hour.
"Mom went to the airport," I whispered.
"Yes," Mara said.
"She came back."
"Yes."
"So why is he here?"
Arthur answered.
"Maybe all of you didn't."
The black mass surged toward row sixteen.
Mara screamed.
"Move!"
We ran for the front galley.
The cockpit door stood open.
Darkness beyond.
That felt wrong.
Everything in the rules had warned us about pilots.
Yet Mara pushed toward it.
"Inside."
"No."
"If we stay here, it gets Lily."
Arthur reached the cockpit first.
Then froze.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
I stepped beside him.
There were no pilots inside.
No controls.
No windshield.
The cockpit had been replaced by a room.
A hospital room.
Old.
Dim.
A heart monitor beeped steadily.
A woman lay unconscious in the bed.
Gray hair.
Oxygen tubing beneath her nose.
I recognized her instantly.
"Mom?"
My mother opened her eyes.
She looked at me.
Not young.
Not fake.
Seventy-one years old.
Exactly as she'd looked the last time I'd seen her six months earlier.
"Garrett?"
I couldn't breathe.
She began crying.
"Oh, sweetheart."
Mara went pale.
"That's impossible."
My mother reached toward me.
"Don't give them Lily."
I stepped closer.
"Mom?"
"Listen to me."
The black mass screamed behind us.
She looked directly into my eyes.
"Flight 237 never took Hannah by accident."
May you like
The heart monitor quickened.
"It was looking for you."
