<div style="text-align: justify;">Darkness. Silence... Dead silence. Was she dead? Water. <span style="font-style: italic">Water?</span> No, she couldn't be dead. Dead people didn't get wet. There wasn't water in Heaven, or Hell. Melissa wasn't sure which way she would have ended had she actually died. There wasn't time to think about it now. She was alive, and had every intention to stay so. Survival instinct kicking in, Melissa moved fast to undo her seat belt. Equally as quickly, she slipped away from her seat, trying to find a way out. Right now, the only thing that mattered was staying alive, and everything - and everyone - else suddenly disappeared from Melissa's mind.<br/><br/>Having read the safety instructions a million times to keep herself calm, Melissa had almost every word etched into her mind. She needed to use a seat as a flotation device, and put as much distance between herself and the plane as possible. That was first. Then... what? Didn't matter now. All that mattered now was staying alive. <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Swim, Mel, swim. As fast and as far as you can. Don't look back, don't look around. Don't look at all the bodies... Oh, my God, are there sharks here? Forget about it, Mel, keep going.</span></span><br/><br/>And she did. She kept swimming far away from the plane, in no defined direction, until her body could no longer move. Feeling her body go limp, Melissa closed her eyes and let herself go again, too tired to care what happened to her now.<br/><br/>When Melissa woke up with the feeling of hot sand on her face, and the pain of several scrapes and cuts, along with a throbbing pain on her left arm, it could have been a few hours or an eternity later. With a groan, the young woman pushed herself up and got on her knees. Where the hell where they? And oh, good Lord, Jace! Jace was with her, and she had left him behind. Getting on her knees, Melissa looked around, fighting the feeling of nausea that was starting to set in. Standing was out of the question at the moment, but yelling out for her lover wasn't. <br/><br/>"Jace! Oh, my God, Jace!", she called out, pushing herself up. Was there someone moving, or were Melissa's eyes deceiving her? "Hello! Anyone there?", the young woman called out again, her right hand feeling her sore arm for broken bones while she waited for a reply.</div>