22nd June. I had finished my GCSE’s, and I was going on holiday. I checked through airport security, boarded the plane, and as the plane reached 30,000ft, everything changed.
The windows turned a blinding black, dark but somehow gleaming. I shut the blind, hoping to drown out the chances of anything bad happening. In my head, if I ignored it, it would never come to anything bad. The aeroplane made that ‘Bing Bong’ noise, and allowed us to take off our seatbelts - surely nothing bad, right? I looked around, out of the other windows, and those windows were clear. Maybe I imagined it? Maybe it’s gone?
I reopened the blind, and I was correct, it had gone. Around five or ten minutes later, the plane made that ‘Bing Bong’ noise again. I jumped at every one of these noises, anxious that they’d say that the plane was going down. But they didn’t. It was just duty free coming around the plane. ‘Any duty free for you today?’ The kind air hostess asked. ‘No, thank you’ I responded, clutching my bag as the plane shook. ‘It’s just turbulence!’ I told myself. But deep down, I knew it wasn’t. ‘Bing Bong’ “Please put your seatbelts back on, and be ready for a quick landing” the pilot announced. But it hadn’t been anywhere near long enough just yet. I assumed the worst, as usual. But this time, I was right to do so.
I fainted, stress overtook my body and while I lay there, asleep, the plane smashed into the side of a mountain.
I woke up in the plane, with the roof caved in. I crawled out from under the caved-in ceiling and looked around for nearby survivors. Down the large hill, there was a shop and nearby, a hospital. But it was too far. I couldn’t make it. I looked around for anything to help, and down part of the hill, I saw a shopping trolley, assumingly from the shop below. I rolled down, hitting off rocks, and got to the trolley. I gripped onto it, and managed to secure myself into the ground. I climbed up, into the trolley and shook, violently, attempting to get down the hill. The last thing I remember is smashing into the side of a wall.
9 months later, I woke up at home, I assumed it was a dream. Searching the house, I found that nobody was home, I assumed it was a bad dream. But it wasn’t. My family had died. And I was stuck in my house. I decided to look around in the attic for any old photos, and I came across I letter. It was in an envelope with my name written on it. I opened it up and read it.
“If you are reading this, then we are dead. I’m sorry to leave you on your own.
We were always so proud of you, son, and we will miss you dearly.
I want you to keep going with who you are. You are so smart, intelligent, funny.
You’re a role model for your younger brother.”
I choked up, reading this. My younger brother had died in the same accident too. I sobbed silently, reading on.
“I can’t wait to see what you have become, because, although we may be gone, we will be watching down on you.
The main thing we have to say is that we are sorry, that we love you, and to ask you to take care of your siblings. You are so responsible, and we have always loved you, son.
Yours sincerely, Mum and Dad.”
I sobbed, rummaging through that same box, finding old family photos. I looked through old science books and I knew… I just knew what I had to do. I worked for days, on weeks, on months, on years, and my machine was built. My cloning machine. I dug up my families grave, performed a little surgery, and had their DNA inputted into my machine. Out came my Mum, my Dad, and my two brothers. “Alright?” I gleamed, as they stepped into my living room. “How’s it going?”
“What… what is this?” My mother exclaimed.
“Is this for real?” My brother cheered.
“It worked!” I screamed, cheering, celebrating, priding myself on my work, and ecstatic that my family were back. I ran to my brother, and I started telling everyone how much I missed them. At the time, I thought that they were just clones. But really, I had somehow brought them back to life. With that, the gas turned on in my kitchen. I thought that maybe I had left it on by mistake, but then the hob turned on, the over, a fire was brewing in my own house. I switched off all the switches which allowed the electric, gas, and anything else to be on. However, a flame came through the wall, terror filled my empty skull and was visible on my face. A huge BANG, BOOM, CLATTER followed. I know that this is very basic onomatopoeia, but it is genuinely what I heard. An explosion decimated, and a fire emerged. I rushed to my family, they were still alive, and I herded them all to my car.
My voice, loud, high with panic, terrified, “What the fuck!”
My family sat, gormless.
“What happened?” I screeched, turning the key in the ignition to drive my car. “What the fuck happened when you died?”
By this point, they had told me that they were gone, but not what actually happened.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” My youngest brother announced.
“Fucking tough!” I constrained, “We don’t have a fucking choice, something is happening and I recon it’s something to do with you lot! So, what happened?”
A discomforting, off-putting silence fell. I pulled out of the driveway. My mother leaned forward and held my shoulder.
“Love, we were told not to discuss it” She whispered.
“What do you mean? Told by who?” I contested
She let go of my shoulder and sat back in her chair. I concentrated on driving, trying to put what she said to the back of my mind. But it didn’t work. I pulled over. I stopped the car.
“Who told you not to talk about it?” I impeached, threateningly.
“Why don’t you keep driving?” My dad piped up.
“Okay, I lost you, I brought you back because I missed you, now please! Please, tell me!” I continued.
“Okay fine!” My eldest brother, Jamie, shrieked.
“Jamie, no!” My mother pleaded, but Jamie continued.
“After the crash, it wasn’t like how they describe it. There was no bright, white light. There was no god. Just a recollection of our life. The ups, and the downs. It ended with our final moments. Mine, trying to wake you up. Saying goodbye to you, wishing and hoping for another chance, to be with my family. Begging you to wake up as you lay, seemingly lifeless. Screaming for help. Holding Mum’s hand for comfort.”
He began to cry. My mother too.
“Jamie, stop this, remember what we were told!” My dad begged.
“I watched the plane crash into the mountain, almost in third person, then it was almost spectating. I had no body, no life. I was just a soul, aimlessly floating around the universe. I found you, as if on google maps, and I watched you in that shopping trolley. I watched you get taken home. They were going to demolish that house, you know? I thought we’d be stuck there forever. Then one day, everything went black. I thought that it was the end of my 7 last minutes of brain activity, I thought I was dead. Then I woke up at home. In bed. We all died, Samuel!”
I was confused, if we all died… then how are we here?
“You arrived, don’t you remember?”
I stayed silent. I swallowed. My head grew heavy for my body. I turned away, looking out of the front window.
“We lived in an alternate universe for a while. Then, just before we arrived here, an old man came calling. He told us to say nothing, that a person called SAMUEL would be punished! I didn’t click at first, mate, but he meant you. He demanded that we-“
I put my head against the window and zoned out I couldn’t believe it. All this time! All this fucking time they were in an alternate universe? Maybe there is an afterlife. Maybe that is a heaven and hell. Good universe or bad universe. I was so confused, and deep in thought, that it took me a moment to here the horn of a truck, speeding down the road. My dad grabbed the steering wheel and pushed me, making my foot hit the pedal. We managed to move, just as the truck hit into the boot of our car, smashing the windows. It was a scrapped car from that point onward.
We walked silently to a nearby cabin in the woods. Nothing can get us there, right? We snuck in, locked the doors and windows, then turned off all electric and gas. We sat around for a while, playing board games. Monopoly, snakes and ladders, connect four. We probably wouldn’t have long left. I wanted to spend time with my family, while I could. Thunder rumbled in the air, and there was a knock at the door. My mother stood up.
“Don’t answer it.” I demanded, firmly. My mother sat back down without another word.
“What if someone needs help?” My brother suggested.
“Fuck them” I whispered. And as the mans shadow was visible through the curtains, like a silhouette of a demon. I insisted that we hid.
“Really?” My mother said, optimistically.
“Something wants us dead, Mum, do you really think that they need help?” I argued. We stayed muted as the man peered through the windows, hiding wherever we can. I snuck to the kitchen, and in one of the draws, I found a gun. Perfect. I picked it up, I loaded it, and pointed it at the door.
It fired.
“I didn’t press anything, I swear!” I cried, it fired again.
“Holy fuck!” Jamie screeched, kicked the gun out of my hand and into the air. As if it was in slow motion, I watched the trigger pull again, with no human interaction, and a bullet firmly landing onto my brothers forehead. He fell to the floor.
“Jamie!” I screamed, as he lay, almost lifeless.
“This is a lesson” He assured me, “It’s over. They’ll take me. I love you, Samuel. I love you all.” He found it hard to talk, but he managed, before he sunk to the floor, lifeless.
“Fuck!” I screamed, racing to the gun. I ran outside and found the man.
“Well, Samuel, up to something bad, in there?” He said, smugly.
“You fucker!” I whispered through gritted teeth.
“Oh, come on, put the gun down, you won’t sh-“
It fired. I fired the gun. Into his chest. I put the gun to his head, and snatched his hair, forcing him to look at me. “I did this to you.” I sobbed, before dealing the final blow to his heart. I left him to bleed out on the canopy.
I thought it was over. I woke up in a blinding white box, this morning. Sword to my throat. A man, demanding that I write an account of everything that has happened. Is this good enough, sir. Can I please see my family now, sir?
Please.