Save Me From the Dark

Chapter 5: On a plane to Prague

Javier opened his eyes. It was not easy: his eyes felt sore and itchy; his head was barely working. He tried to make out where he was. He remembered the last thing was getting into a strange looking car, then saying his home address to the driver and then nothing, only the darkness. 

"I must have passed out," he thought. "A taxi driver drove me home. And like so many other times before, I somehow managed to open my apartment with my key. Then I climbed up the stairs to continue my slumber in my room." 

 After a while, when he felt less woozy, he started to realise that something was off. He sat with a start. The room seemed unfamiliar, so he started peering into the details of the room. A slow realisation began to sink into his mind. He was not in his room. It even did not look like a typical room! This place seemed like a cave; there were no windows, no massive and wooden chest of drawers. Except for an old desk with a chair and the bed, on which he was lying across, there wasn't anything else. The room was dim, and all he could hear was the rasping of an air conditioner at the left side of the cave room. He slowly descended his right and then left foot on the ground and tiptoed to the metal and unfriendly looking door; he tried to open the door by pressing down on the cold doorknob, nothing happened. A harsh realisation struck him; he was locked up in this room by someone

… and probably kidn*pped! No… He started disparately banging with his fists against the cold metal door.

"Open me up! Heeeelp! Heeeelp me! I am locked up!" However, he shouted for help; no one could hear. His shouts stayed within the cold brown cave walls. Javier did not know that he was deep underground and that his yelling and banging on the door won't help him." 

****

Andrea woke up with a start when her alarm clock sounded. "6 a.m. -- it's time to pack up things and go to the airport. Won't take long." 

The first thing she did is to shower and change into her jeans and virescent hoodie. Andrea glanced into the mirror in the hallway; she looked totally haggard. She could barely sleep yesterday: she did not know how to shut up her thoughts in her head. Vivid snippets, episodes from the deep down were springing on her, unceasingly: 

David pulled her to his chest, whispered something in her ear; his whisper like a forgotten tune dissipated into thin air. Skeleton leaves were swirling in whirlwinds, then gracefully descended on the damp earth. Next snippet from her memory: she was running away from David, laughing, "catch me." When he caught her, he folded her in an embrace; then he peered into her eyes with eyes full of fire, he pressed his lips to hers. In response, she dived her slim fingers into his golden hair. Their figures froze at that moment. 

Andrea shook her head to let go of those memories. She brushed her hair, put her sunglasses on, and clutched her travelling bag. She was ready to be off.

 A bright-looking yellow taxi halted at the curb. Andrea left her apartment, throwing one last time an introspective look at the facade of her blocks of flat and perfectly trimmed, green hedges. She perched her sunglasses on her nose and dived into the taxi.

It took about an hour to reach the airport. Andrea paid with her credit card to the taxi driver for the ride and headed to the entrance. After a few hours of waiting and all sorts of checking, like passing through passport control, she was finally inside the plane. 

Andrea was finally on the board of an aeroplane. While she was passing through the aisle to get to her seat, she almost tripped, but someone-- who was apparently Andrea's neighbour--caught her arm on time and helped Andrea with her heavy luggage to haul it up and shove it in the overhead locker.

"Thanks," said Andrea. The young man smiled at her. "You welcome."

Once Andrea got comfortable in her seat, she decided to send a text message to her best friend.

-- Hey, bestie. I'm finally aboard -- Andrea 

-- Heyy. How r u? ― Sasha 

― I am good. A bit nervous, though. ― Andrea

-- Miss you already. We should Skype. Maybe now? --- Sasha

-- Gimme 20 minutes. I'll call you on Skype right after the take-off -- Andrea 

-- Okay --- Sasha

  After the plane was finally in the air and soaring, Andrea unbuckled her seatbelt. Andrea drew her laptop out of her backpack and put it on the fold-out table in front of her. Andrea looked out of the window while she was waiting for Skype to connect. 

"Hey, Andre," cheerfully said Sahsa." What's up?"

"I am on the aeroplane flying to Prague."

"Tell me, how is your mom? Is she alright?" asked Sasha worriedly.

"Dunno. I guess I will find out once I am there," said Andrea frowning.

"Hang in there, bestie." 

"By the way, did you hear about Javier?"

"Noooo," Andrea responded lazily.

    "Did he again swear in from of a professor and received a warning from the Dean for that?"

     "Well, yesterday, Alec texted me. He was freaking out a bit. Javier disappeared after the uni welcome party. He does not respond to text messages or phone calls. I hope he shows up eventually."

"Yeah, that is weird," responded Andrea, slightly tilting her head to the right. She thought I did not know him well, but I hope he is alright.

"Did you call the police?"

"No, not yet. Alec reckons it would be better if he calls his grandma to ask if she knows where he is. Maybe he just lashed out ...or something and decided to cool down somewhere." Then Sasha tried to add something, but the image started to la, and her voice cracks up. Andrea decided to exit the video chat and call Sasha again. 

Once she re-connected to Sasha's Skype.

"Hey, your image started to lag."

"It happens sometimes," Sasha shrugged.

 "Did you know that Chuck―" "At the word "Chuck", Andrea lower lip started to curl in disgust and deep-seated suspicion. "he got me this." Sasha raised her hand that rested on her lap and drew it closer to the camera. Andrea noticed a delicate-looking golden bracelet with an azure pendulum hanging from her wrist. 

"It looks nice," said Andrea.

"By the way, I promised him to call as soon as possible. "Gotta go. Send me a text message when you land."

"Okay, See ya, bestie." She tapped with her right hand her left shoulder--- that was their secret see you soon gesture.

"Love ya."

   It passed about half an hour since Andrea talked to her friend. After studying all the magazines, from the front pocket attached to the back of a seat, she was bored. Therefore, she decided to fish out from her travelling bag a book; it was a compilation of assorted poems.

While she was reading a poem called the Raven Allan by Edgar Poe. 

"Hey," said the young man who helped her with the luggage. 

"Do you like poetry?"

"Yes," said Andrea, still reading the poem.

"Who are favourite authors?" he asked, sounding genuinely interested. 

"Mmm," said Andrea. Then she put it away and looked at that guy more closely. "Well, I like Emily Dickenson for her impeccable style, Pablo Neruda for writing lines that make you hear music when you read his lines, Edgar Allan Poe for making you feel alive and sensitive more than ever, and also Frost for constantly changing my perception on this raving world." 

"Wow. I thought you are just going to name famous Insta poets like Rupi Kaur. Lemme guess... Are you are a writer?"

"Well, I could say so. But I am an amateur."

"My name is Daniel. What's yours?

 "Andrea."

"Nice to meet you, Andrea," said Daniel, his caramel eyes twinkling.

"What do you do, Andrea?" 

"Oh, I am a student. I study politics at St. Andrews. What about you?"

"I am an entrepreneur. I work at a company called Grand Lumus." 

"That's an interesting name. I have never heard of such a company."

"We are not that popular yet to be known by most people like Microsoft or Apple. But we are expanding."

"Where are you from, Daniel?"

"I am from Toronto. And u?"

"I'm from Brooklyn," she paused for a second to think what question to ask to continue their conversation. "How was your visit to the US?"

"It was good. I flew there from Toronto to help the CEO to maintain our companies business."

"Nice."

He wanted to say something, but suddenly his phone called.

Andrea did not want to listen to his private conversation, so she plugged her earphones to watch a movie. 

The rest of the flight was calm and without any conversations. The young man sitting next to her became very busy and typed something on his laptop during the rest of the flight—no more words passed between them.

The aeroplane has finally landed. The passengers staggered to the exit with their handbags. 

Andrea hurriedly had left the airport and stopped a cab from taking her to the hotel located to the hospital where her parents were.  

As the car was racing through the quaint streets of Prague, she could not help to open the window to smell the fresh air. "This place looks like a fairy tale",, mused Andrea. "I wish Sasha was here to explore this place with me." The car has suddenly stopped, the driver said, "We have arrived, miss. Can I help you with your luggage?"

"Yes," said Andrea opening the door. The hotel was ancient-looking; two lions at the entrance were staring at her menacingly. He had helped her bring her luggage into the hotel and get into the car after Andrea paid him for the ride. "Have a good stay in Prague, miss," he said and drove away.