Amelia disliked her parents. She didn’t hate them, as they didn’t enjoy causing her trouble, but she disliked them. They sent her as their messenger, with no regard to her schedule or personal life. She was 19 in college for heaven's sake. She should be working on her career, not being a stand in at meetings for her parents.
Sighing as she watched the line in front of her slowly diminish, she thought of what she could be doing right now if she had refused her parents request. She could be playing video games with her roommate, or studying for the upcoming exams. Actually this was better than studying but the meeting wouldn’t be. There was so much she could have been doing.
Maybe she should have gone for a college farther away, so her parents couldn’t ask her to work on things. Maybe she could have taken a year or two off from school to get herself set up in some foreign city as far away from her parents business as possible. But oh no, she just had to find a college in the same state as her parents HQ. Hell, they could have easily made it to these meetings, they lived there. It made absolutely no sense. She considered just turnings around and telling them she fell sick.
She was broken from her thoughts when she reached the metal detector. She dropped her backpack into the bin and continued through. She grabbed her backpack when the agents had checked it and continued into a waiting area.
She could still run, maybe fake a seizure, one of her friends was a doctor, maybe he could confirm it for her parents. Maybe she had a rare disease that gave her seizures whenever she had meetings. But no, she had gone to the meetings before. Oh! It only manifested after 19. Or maybe one of her other friends could have an emergency and she would have to stay and take care of her.
She was again broken from her scheming by an announcement that her plane had arrived. She grabbed her small carryon and walked onto the plane. She was in first class, her parents had paid for her flight. Plugging in her tablet, she pulled out her stylus and began to sketch out the next chapter in her comic. Her partner already had the story written out for 7 more chapters and she was a little behind. She felt a little bad, being the weak link was not the best feeling.
She was so focused on drawing that she didn’t even notice when a woman sat down next to her. After a few minutes of silence with the woman waiting to be noticed, she finally just said
“Hello, I’m Mia, I’ll be sitting next to you for this flight.”
Amelia jumped as she broke from concentration. “Oh! I’m sorry, Amelia... That’s my name… Uh hi.” Amelia liked to think she was good at socializing. She was witty and good at continuing conversations. But the words that had just left her mouth destroyed that confidence. She quickly tried to save the situation.
“Sorry, you startled me, I was a little too engrossed in my drawings. Hello, Mia, I’m Amelia.”
“Oh it’s fine! Sometimes I’ll get a little too into my own projects as well.”
“Oh? What are those?”
“I own a little cafe, but I really enjoy gardening. Sometimes my customers are a little thrown off, there’s little gardens all over the shop. I even managed to open one in the middle of the counter. I think it gives my cafe a nice cozy feel.”
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“Oh that’s so cute! What kind of plants?”
“Oh I’ve got succulents everywhere. They’re kind of the gateway plants for aspiring gardeners, and I fell in love with them. Then I branched out to other plants that would be good decoration. I managed to make an indoor ivy wall, but it’s a pain to keep maintained so I just covered the front in ivy.”
“Cool! Any plants I’ve ever touched have died within a couple days.”
“Have you ever tried a succulent?”
“Uh, I don’t think so?”
“Try one! They’re really easy. Oh!” Mia reached into her bag and pulled out a little card. ‘Coupon for a free succulent at Dia’s de Mia!’.
“Days of Mia? Interesting name.”
“Yeah well… It was friends suggestion and I decided to stick with it.”
“Huh.” The conversation slowly petered off, and Amelia resumed her drawing.
After 15 minutes the plane lifted off. They rose up above the clouds and the ground spread out below them. Several hours passed, a classic boring flight.
Then the plane shook violently. Amelia’s tablet was thrown out of her hands, her stylus flying away and hitting another passenger in the head.
“Hey!” The man yelled, looking over angrily.
“Sorry, turbulence surprised me.” Amelia replied, “Could I get it back so I can put it away? I don’t want it flying off again.”
The man gave her a look. “Fine, just don’t let it happen again.”
“Asshole.” She muttered as she stuffed her stylus and tablet away.
“Apologies passengers, we’re experiencing strange wind currents.”
The plane jostled again, shaking harder than any turbulence Amelia had experienced before. She shivered a bit and looked out the window. Right as the engines failed. They didn’t cough or show any signs of a problem. They just stopped. That was when the wind took them. Amelia was thrown around as the plane was yanked to the side, flying at extreme speeds that didn’t seem any slower than the plane flying straight.
Through a sudden gap in the cloudlayer she saw the ocean spread out below them. That wasn’t possible though, she hadn’t been able to see the ocean when they took off. Another intense gust of wind blew the plane straight up. She slammed against the floor, groaning in pain. She fought towards the window again, and this time she saw massive boulders being thrown around outside. She noticed one on a worrying track towards the plane. She screamed and braced. The boulder slammed into the side of the plane, shearing off half of it. Her ears popped with the sudden pressure change, and she was thrown into the side of the plane as it spun with the boulder.
She looked over and saw Mia struggling on the ground. She pulled herself over and grabbed Mia, pulling her into her seat and clipping herself and Mia in.
She looked around and took stock of the situation. The plane was being thrown around like a piece of paper by record breaking wind speeds.
She looked over at Mia to ask if she was alright. That was when the winds clashed. The plane was ripped apart by warring winds. Amelia was torn from the plane. She flew out into the sky. It was the most exhilarating, terrifying thing she had ever done. She reoriented herself to look at the plane right as it smashed against a mountain sized boulder. It splattered. She immediately knew there were no survivors.
Amelia fought to do something, maybe she could survive falling into the ocean. But she couldn’t fight the wind. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t fight the current. That was when she had an epiphany. There wasn’t anything to do. She had no power here.
She let herself relax, and the wind took her...