text: The turbulence outside the plane was like nothing I’d ever experienced. At some points the plane was almost at a ninety degree angle. We could hear the thunder and see the lightning, flashing in bright and deadly streaks across the sky. The seatbelt sign had flashed on what seemed like ages ago, but even before that people were holding onto their seats for dear life. The pilot had been making announcements through the intercom but even those had stopped after a while. The air hostesses were strapped down in their seats, so we couldn’t even ask them what was happening or when we were going to land. The plane’s wifi had long since cut out. As the wind howled and the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed, I found myself feeling sleepy. I had been up for hours and now even a storm like this couldn’t keep me awake. I drifted off and when I woke up, what must have been hours later as the sky was now even darker, the thunder was still roaring all around us. I looked for my bag, and saw that it had fallen off the rack and was now sitting at my feet. I reached down for it and pulled out my phone to check the time. My phone read that it was 8 at night, but that wasn't possible. I had fallen asleep at 8, and it felt like I had slept for hours. I tried to rationalise. Maybe I had just closed my eyes and I felt so tired I thought I fell asleep? That must be it, it was the only rational explanation. I decided to play one of the games on my phone to pass the time, but I couldn’t concentrate with the thunder still booming. I checked the little clock at the top of my phone screen. 8:00pm What? I had been trying to play that game for at least 20 minutes. I know some people have a terrible sense of time but I am not one of those people. I definitely had not been playing that game for less than a minute. I turned to look around me at the people in the other seats. They were all in the same positions as I remembered. I turned back to my phone. 8:00pm I stared and stared at that little clock, waiting, begging, praying for that little number to tick up. It didn’t. Suddenly, one of the stewardesses came marching up the aisle towards me. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to put that phone away.” I was so stunned by her unusual request that I simply did as she asked, like I was on autopilot. I decided I would ask her about what was happening, just for a bit of peace of mind. “Do you know how long we have until we land?” She smiled at me, indulgently, like an adult would to a child. “We will be landing shortly. Please just relax and enjoy the flight.” The stewardess strutted off back to her seat. The seatbelt sign had clicked off and the turbulence had died down for now, so I took the opportunity to use the bathroom. I checked my phone again. 8:00pm What was happening?! Was I going mad? I strolled back to my seat and peeked out the window. The sky was still an angry grey and it was raining heavily but there were none of those abrasive thunder claps and blinding flashes of lightning anymore. Just a regular rainy night. A woman a little ways down the aisle from me got up to use the bathroom. As she walked by my seat, she dropped a little slip of paper in my lap, and just kept walking. I unfolded it and read the short message. *I’m awake too* Awake? I scrambled for a pen and wrote back - *Awake from what? What’s happening?* The woman left the bathroom and shuffled past my seat. As she went by, I pushed the piece of paper back into her hand. She didn't go back to her previous seat though, she sat down in the empty one right in front of mine. I could see her through the gap in the chairs, she was scribbling an answer. She pushed it through the chairs to me and as I unfolded it, I opened my mouth to ask her a question. She shushed me by putting a finger to her lips and motioned for me to open the paper. *What time is it?* I looked up at her, panic clear in my eyes, and her face looked like she already knew the answer. I checked my phone again - 8:00pm I showed the woman my phone screen. She barely glanced at it. All she did was mouth ‘I know’ and pulled out her phone to show me. 8:00pm Okay. Okay. Not okay. The clock on my phone stopping? Sure, it's unlikely, but plausible. Two phones, stopped at the exact same time, and everyone else in the exact same positions they were in at the time except for the stewardesses telling us we can’t have our phones out? Creepy. But why us? Why are this woman and myself the only people left awake in this unholy nightmare? Was it the storm? But it couldn’t have been, the storm had been going all day, just now we were in it. What was going on? Abruptly, the woman got up and went back to her original seat. I took a sip of water from my bottle. I just couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Why me? Why her? It felt like I was in a horror movie. I decided that one way or another, I was getting answers. I moved towards the front of the plane, and none of the hostesses even tried to stop me. They just sat in their seats, still as statues. I pushed through the curtain and into the cockpit. I tried asking the co-pilot what was going on, but he just stared straight ahead, not even acknowledging that I was there. I strode over to him and almost fainted. Right across his chest was a huge blood stain, leaking from a gash that went right across his torso. Same with the pilot. The plane had been set to autopilot, probably so we didn’t crash.. I staggered out of the cockpit passing the hostesses, still sitting in the same positions. Although facing them now, I could see why. In the center of their chests where blood stains. On every single one, though not as gruesome as the pilots. I screamed, this time running from the bodies and back to my seat. On every single person I passed, I could now see a blood stain on their chest. Passing by them before, from behind I couldn’t see, but now I got the full and gory view. I was on a plane of corpses. I passed the seat of the woman who had dropped the paper in my lap, but instead of a bloodstained hole, I saw an awful grin. My stomach dropped. Her grin changed to a smile that was almost kind. She reached down to her bag, slowly unzipped it, and pulled out a kitchen knife. I started to whimper. I was about to die.