Me and my boyfriend have been dating for nearly 3 years now, we have a really good relationship and are planning to buy a house and start a family soon. He’s on holiday in South America with his family and I’m away in Cornwall with some friends - staying in a rural cottage surrounded by fields and forests. I had the only bedroom on the top floor, a cosy converted attic with 2 big skylights facing the bed.
Last night, I closed the skylight’s blinds and got into bed as usual. As I was going to sleep, I got a text from my boyfriend saying him and his family are getting on tonight’s flight and coming home early because his uncle had been in a accident and was in hospital. I replied and fell into a deep sleep.
I remember my ‘dream’. I was on a plane, but it wasn’t me. Looking around I recognised a few familiar faces - it was my boyfriend’s family, his younger brother, mother and father. A distinctive scar on the back of my left hand made me realise I was the point of view of my boyfriend.
It was all going so well, I ordered a drink or two, snacked, binge watched Game Of Thrones on my iPad and pilot announced we only had about 45 minutes until landing at London Heathrow.
Bang.
That’s all I heard.
Then screams of horror and fear.
Turning around I saw that the back of the plane was missing, the vaccum of air grasped at my body, the screams and the overwhelming sound of my own heartbeat flooded my ears. There was unalive people in seats behind me, my little brother was clinging on to me for dear life - his eyes filled with fear, my mother was gone, my dad was badly injured.
That’s when I realised. The plane has going down. Fast. Nosediving towards the ground, propelled by the blast. This is when it hit me, I was going to die, and there’s nothing I can do.
I blacked out, maybe it was because of the air pressure, maybe it was because I knew I was going to die. I regained consciousness about 30 seconds later.
The ground was approaching fast, the plane was a fire frenzy, the screams defended my ears. Alight fuel soaked and tailed behind the plane.
What was left of my family turned together and we all said how much we loved each other. I remember the pain, pain all over, and the screams of doomed, innocent people. The ground approaching.
That’s when I woke up.
Cold sweat, heart beating, shivering all over.
I turned over to see the skylights. One of the blinds had spring up overnight, so I got up to pull it back down.
That’s when I saw it burst through the cloud, I could only just make it out through the darkness. A comet? Space debris? A star?
I wish. I wish it was any of those things. It wasn’t.
Half of a burning plane plummeting straight towards the cottage.