The soft humming sound that the plane was making managed to wake Nick up from his soft slumber as he was slouched on the First Class seat of the airplane. He hated traveling on air. He hated being in situation where he feels like he is not in control, and being inside a plane flying 40,000 feet off the ground scared him more than anything.

Nick quickly leaned over to press the button for assistance from one of the flight attendants. Within seconds, a slender middle-aged woman stood beside him and gently asked, “Is there anything I can do for you sir?”

Nick looked up, “Yeah, can I uhm…can I have a glass of orange juice please?”

“Certainly,” she nodded, “is that everything you need?”

Nick shook his head in a ‘yes’ direction while taking in deep breaths. “Actually,” he called out after her. “Do you know what time the plane will be landing?”

“We will be landing in approximately 85 minutes,” she replied. “Will that be all?”

“Yeah, thank you”

“I will be back with your orange juice,’ she concluded while finally walking away back to the little room where food was prepared for the plane passengers and a couple of her co-workers stood around, mingling and chatting with one another.

Nick suddenly began to feel claustrophobic as his eyesight began to blur. He began to breathe deep in and out slowly trying to remain calm while shutting his eyes. “I hate this, I hate this,” he repeated over and over silently to himself.

As his nerves began to calm down and his breathing began to come to him naturally, a sudden jerk in the plane caused him to tense back up again. “Turbulence,” he said under his breath as his hand grasped tightly on the armrest on his plane seat. “Nothing like good ole turbulence to make all of this even hellish than it already is!” he grunted in frustration while he shut his eyes trying to think of other thoughts that could take his fear away.

A small beeping sound filled the air for about 2 seconds as the sign for the seatbelts lit up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the pilot of the plane speaking. We are currently going through a water cloud and we will be experiencing a slight turbulence problem in the next couple of minutes. Please put all seats in the upright position and put your seatbelts on during this time. Thank you!”

The calm voice of the pilot that boomed at the plane P.A. system was almost enough to convince Nick’s heart rate to slow down, but his nerves tensed up as he continued to tightly grasp on the armrest of his seat. “I hate turbulence,” he gritted his teeth as beads of sweat began to form on his forehead.

“Sir, are you okay?” the same flight attendant he was talking with earlier appeared beside him once more as she held a cup of orange juice in her hand. He nodded his head, lying of his condition and shielding away his evident fear. “We’re not suppose to serve any beverages during turbulence but you seem really tensed up, so here you go,” she smiled graciously while placing the cup of orange juice on the small table in front of where Nick was seated and quickly making her way back to her own seat and buckled her seatbelt.

Nick took his right hand off from its grasp on the armrest and lifted it off to take hold of the glass of orange juice but when he was inches away from it, another jerk in the plane sent the cup flying in the air and landing on the floor of the plane, sending the glass into a hundred pieces as the juice spilled on the floor. He quickly looked back at where the same flight attendant that had gave him the orange juice was seated to show to her what had happened, but her focus was elsewhere.

Another sudden joggle in the plane let out a boom that came from the outside as the plane began to vigorously tilt in all directions. Passengers began to shriek in fear as the oxygen masks were automatically released from its hidden compartments and the flight attendants, seemingly in unison, all got up from their seats and began to instruct all passengers to put on their oxygen masks.

Nick quickly grab hold of his placing it over his head and began to breathe in gasping for as much as he could to prevent himself from fainting. He could feel all the blood in his face leaving as his face turned pale white from fear. The beads of sweat that was collected on his forehead began to drop down his face while his heartbeat raced much more quickly than he had ever experienced. He felt cheated out of his own air as his sight began to once again blur, and soon enough became dimmer.

The panicked sounds that all the other passengers were making were drowned out by the ringing sound Nick began to hear in his own head. He quickly clenched both of his ears with both the palm of his hands trying to drown out the shrilling sound he could hear in his head, but the more he tried to block it out, the louder it became.

Lights began to flicker while the plane continued to jerk in all directions. The flight attendants all ran in every place they could see to try and keep everyone calm while screaming out in their most serene and gentle voice, “Everyone please stay seated and calm down”

The sound of a baby’s cry suddenly filled the air as the light in the plane took one last hit before finally shutting off completely. Darkness fell.

Nick remained in his seat, eyes closed and ears plugged as he breathes in and out grasping for as much oxygen as he could. He suddenly heard nothing but silence: not the comforting kind of silence, but the type that allowed the hairs on his arm and back of his neck stand on its end. He slowly crept his eyes opened while moving his hands away from his ears. All he saw was darkness. He shifted his head around to try and find any sort of movement around him. Darkness. Silence. Stillness. Fear. All he could hear was the soft sound of his own breathing as he slowly inhaled and exhaled, nothing else; not even his own heartbeat.

He sat still in his own chair while trying to figure out what was going on. Where did everyone go? Was it all just a dream? If it was a dream, then how come it feels so real? All these questions circulated around his head, but his own thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the huge booming sound of an explosion. An orange-like light suddenly beat the darkness. Nick quickly turned his head around to see smoke coming from the very end of the plane.

“Shit!” Nick screamed out as he searched out for any place of out. Nick began to fidget with his seatbelt as he tried to take it off, but he couldn’t, it seemed to have been stuck. He reached for his oxygen mask to take it off, but he couldn’t. The oxygen mask began to vacuum out all of the air he had in him choking him even more. Nick gasped for any sort of salvation he could find as he looked back once more as the fire began to draw closer and closer to him. All he felt was suffocation and the heat from the fire.

A sudden high-pitched shrieking sound was belt out in the air, a sound that was deafening as Nick clenched both his ears once more to take the sound away. With one last breath in him, he breathes in as everything turned dark yet once again, and silence was all there is.

“Sir?” the flight attendant’s gentle voice was suddenly all he could hear.

He peered open his eyes and the light almost blinded him. He quickly sat up as he looked around. Everything was all right, everyone was calm, the plane felt like it wasn’t moving at all, there was no turbulence, there never was, it was all a dream, a nightmare!

Nick let out a sigh of relief as he looked up at the flight attendant, watching him in worry while clenching a glass of orange juice in her hand. “Sir, are you okay?”

“Yeah…I’m uh…I’m fine, just a bad dream that’s all,” he smiled at her to comfort her while reaching for the juice he had ordered earlier.

“Okay, if you need anything else, just give me a holler. We’ll be landing in less than 30 minutes,” she smiled at him again before walking away.

“Less than 30?” Nick thought, “I must have been asleep for a long time!” he shrugged his shoulder as he chugged down his orange juice. He was relieved that his near-death experience was nothing but a disturbing nightmare, but somehow, deep inside, he still felt a slight sense of discomfort telling him it was a sneak peek of future occurrences. He gulped as his paranoia of flying returned, and thus, the end never comes.