Crash. Darkness. Repeat.
This time, something was different.
I opened my eyes in my seat, the usual feeling of dread creeping in. But now, I wasn’t the only one aware of the loop. The stranger who had whispered to me on the 200th crash—he was there again, but this time, he didn’t look quite as resigned. There was something else in his eyes… determination.
He leaned in before the safety instructions even started, his voice low and urgent. “Listen, I know you’ve been searching for a way out. You’re closer than you think. But you have to trust me.”
I stared at him, confused and wary. How could this man know something I didn’t after all these crashes? Was this another trick of my tortured mind?
“I’ve lived this loop for far longer than you,” he continued. “But what I didn’t tell you last time was that there is a way out. I just never had the courage to follow it through.”
Hope flickered in my chest, but doubt was stronger. “Why should I believe you?” I asked, my voice rough from the tension that had built over hundreds of crashes.
“Because I’ve seen the signs,” he replied. “There’s something you’re missing, something right before the plane crashes. Watch carefully this time. You’ll see it.”
I wanted to ask more, but before I could, the plane lurched violently as the familiar turbulence hit. The masks dropped. Passengers screamed. I braced for impact, but I did as he said—I watched. I focused on every detail.
Then I saw it.
Just a split second before the crash, a glimmer—a flash of light outside the window, like something tearing through the fabric of reality itself. It was brief, almost imperceptible, but it was there. I had never noticed it before.
The impact hit. Darkness.
When I awoke again, I was back in my seat, but now my heart raced with new purpose. This wasn’t just a loop. There was something else at play, something bigger than just reliving the same death over and over.
I turned to the stranger, my voice breathless. “I saw it. What is it?”
His expression was grim but hopeful. “It’s a doorway. But getting to it isn’t going to be easy. We need to time it perfectly—at the exact moment before the crash. If we miss it, we’ll be stuck here again.”
“What do we do?”
He paused, his eyes locking with mine. “We jump.”
“Jump? Out of the plane? We’ll die.”
“We’ve been dying anyway,” he said, his voice steady. “But this time, it won’t be the same. That light—it’s the exit. If we can jump at just the right moment, we’ll break free. I’ve never had the courage to try it before… but now, with you here, I think we can.”
Crash. Darkness. Repeat.
I was filled with fear and doubt, but as the cycles went on, that flash of light outside the window became my beacon, my obsession. Each crash brought me closer to understanding. I had nothing left to lose.
The stranger and I prepared. On the 250th crash, we stood up as the turbulence hit, moving toward the emergency exit near the wings. The plane shook violently, passengers screamed in chaos, but we kept our focus on the flash of light, counting the seconds, timing our move.
As the plane spiraled down, the stranger yelled, “Now!”
We yanked the emergency door open. The wind roared, deafening, pulling us toward the void. Without a second thought, we leapt.
For a moment, there was nothing but air and terror as we hurtled through the sky. But then, I saw it—the light. It wasn’t just a flash anymore. It was a portal, swirling, pulling us toward it.
We hit the light, and everything exploded into brightness.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t on the plane.
I was standing on solid ground, in a place I didn’t recognize—a landscape of shifting colors and shapes, like something out of a dream. The stranger stood beside me, breathing heavily but alive, no longer resigned to endless crashes.
We had made it. We were free… or so I thought.
But as I looked around, the realization hit me: this wasn’t the end. This was another beginning.
“Welcome to the in-between,” the stranger said quietly. “Now, we find out who’s really pulling the strings.”
And so, our journey continued. The loop had been broken, but the real mystery had just begun.