Chapter 239: A Familiar Yet Unsettling Journey
Hearing the sound coming from outside the vehicle’s window he was sitting on, the man turned and looked at its source. Looking through the window, he saw a woman signaling him to get out of the vehicle while handling some sort of luggage as well.
When the woman saw that the man was still dazed, she decided to speak once again, "Are you daydreaming, Dhruv!?"
Dhruv saw the mouth of the woman opening and closing as words began to form in his mind. After understanding the meaning of the words coming out of her mouth, something happened deep inside of him... once again.
Looking towards her, he replied, "It’s nothing, Mom. I am just tired because of the packing yesterday."
"As expected..." Expecting something like this, the woman thought nothing of it and began to move toward the airport.
Click!!
Opening the door, Dhruv was about to get out when someone interrupted him,
"Sir, payment!?" The cab’s driver spoke, looking directly into his eyes. His stare was as intense as that of a demon asking for the souls of his victims. Or... maybe even more intense than that.
"Ohhh! My bad..." Saying these words, Dhruv quickly took out $50 from his purse and handed it to the driver.
Deducting $40 from his fare, the driver was about to return the rest of the money...
Stopping him midway, Dhruv interrupted with a smile on his face, "Keep the change."
"Thank you, Sir." Heaving a sigh of relief, the driver quickly bowed in appreciation.
Something Looking at the driver’s actions, something clicked in his mind. Noting this, he tried to remember it. Even after a moment when he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, Dhruv gave up and began to walk toward the airport.
While he was walking toward the airport, something happened behind him that he was unaware of. The moment he entered the inside of the parameter, everything outside of it began to get blurred out as the fuel for them had brunt out.
Except for the airport, everything had turned into a white void.
After finishing all the formalities he finally found the way to the lounge and entered it. Being in the lounge they began to wait for the flight to land on the flight.
Having come so early they had another hour before the flight would even land. Having an hour in his hand Dhruv decided to sleep... after all, he was very tired from all the things he had done before this.
[We are pleased to inform you that Flight number SLA-789 from Caslsih has successfully arrived at Horizon International Airport. The aircraft is...]
[...Thank you for choosing the Parkers’ Airways.]
Hearing the announcement Dhruv finally got out of his dream and looked at his phone to see the time. To get freshen up he got out of his seat and began to move toward the washroom to freshen up.
The moment Dhruv walked ten steps toward the washroom, Everything behind him began to glitch and finally escaped the reality.
"Why am I getting a headache.." Looking in the mirror Dhruv rubbed his head gently.
After getting out of the washroom he got toward everyone and began to hand out their boarding pass to them, "Let’s get going, guys..."
Having everything ready he and his family began to walk toward the boarding gate. It took them about 10 more minutes to sort everything out and get on the plane.
While moving toward the airplane a conversation sparked between his younger siblings.
"We should go to the famous aquarium first...I have heard they have m-mon-st-er... big fish that could eat a human alive," Rani argued with her little brother over their first destination as she began to sit in her seat.
Sitting beside her, Surya wasn’t one to give up either, "No, we will go to the beach first."
"No... aquarium first..." Rani was still standing strong, not in the mood to give up her choice.
"Nooooo, we should go to the beach so you can see your ugly fishes as well..." Surya muttered while making weird faces to annoy his sister.
Seeing their fight, a gentle smile appeared on Dhruv’s face. Observing the interaction between the two, he felt a sense of urgency, as he knew that the verbal could really escalate into something physical.
Understanding his situation, he chimed in, "I think Mom should decide... Don’t you think?" Dhruv added, an awkward smile clearly visible on his face.
Hearing these words, both of them fell silent for a second. Looking in his direction, Rani opened her mouth first,
"Yey! That would be great if Mom doesn’t favor this little son of hers... but anyway, where do you think we should go, Mom?"
"I will listen to her as well..." Surya added with a smile on his face.
Nodding her head, their mother didn’t reply immediately and instead began to think about it carefully. When she had thought enough, looking at everyone, she replied, "I think we should travel around the place while trying different cuisines... what do you guys think?"
"Hmmm! Good, you can count me in if there is food," Dhruv replied, agreeing with the plan.
"Good enough, that way we can wander around as well..." Rani nodded her head.
"Okay..." Surya agreed as well.
"So..." Dhruv was about to say something when someone interrupted him.
[Ladies and gentlemen, this is Navi, your Captain speaking. On behalf of the entire crew, I’d like to welcome you aboard Flight 372 bound for Skyhaven International Airport. I along with our crew will accompany you on this journey...]
Hearing the announcement, Dhruv looked at his smartphone. A frown appeared on his face as he saw the time there.
’Hmmm! Isn’t it too early to fly...’ Thinking this, Dhruv turned his head around to see what was going on.
"Hello... Is anyone here..." Dhruv shouted as he realized there was no one there...
There wasn’t a single soul on the flight except for them. Standing from his seat, he began to move toward the cockpit to learn about the situation.
He didn’t even take more than ten steps when a bone-chilling sound came from behind him.
"Why did you do that, Dhruv..."
"Why did you d..."
"Why did y..."
"....."
"..."
"..."
He began to hear a roaring, remorseful, hate-filled voice of his mom ringing in his head from all directions.
Not knowing what was going on, he blurted out, "What did I do, Mom..."
Sensing something was wrong, he retraced his steps and began to move towards his mom. As he did, he heard something coming out of her mouth once again.
"We were happy with our life, weren’t we? There was no need for this vacation... Isn’t that right, Dhruv..." He heard the sound coming from all three of the mouths sitting on the seats of the plane.
"...." Dhruv couldn’t believe he was hearing these things from the mouths of his own family.
"Why are you talking like that.." He sprinted to reach his family... but unfortunately he was tooo late.
He saw as all three of his family members turned into dust along with the reality they were in.
