Finishing up as quickly as I could in the restroom, I stepped out and scampered back to my seat. I put my earbuds in, hoping the sounds of 90's grunge music might drown out the flight attendant's voice in my head. It didn't.

I looked out through the window, spotting... Well, that was just it, I spotted nothing. I leaned forward to look a bit closer, and there was nothing. Everything was one giant, gray cloud around the plane. Great, I thought, a thunderstorm, and we're right in the middle of it. Fan-fuckin'-tastic.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Calm yourself, you're just--

"Running?" My eyes snapped open. The voice was soft, monotone, mechanical almost, coming from the seat behind me. I turned to look behind me and saw this little girl, couldn't have been a day over 9 or 10, sitting alone who, like everyone else on this creepy ass flight, was staring forward with the blankest, deadest stare I've ever seen from a person. Lifeless, emotionless, mechanical.

"Excuse me?" I asked. She continued staring at me with two doll like eyes.

"You're running from something, aren't you?" I frowned at her.

"What're you talking about?" I started looking around. "And where're your--"

"They're gone, too, Rick." My mouth fell open. My heart froze.

"H-How do you know my name?"

"We all know who you are, Rick. You're running away, just like I did."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't." I raised my eyebrow. For a moment, I couldn't tell whether or not it was a good idea to keep trying to talk to her. I'm not saying that I was scared of her hurting me or anything, obviously, but something about what she was saying (or at the very least implying) sounded to me like something I wouldn't want to know.

Part of this is that fact that, at least from what I could see, she wasn't trying to be scary or anything like that. Nothing about what she said sounded like she was trying to exaggerate or even make some sort of shock statement. No, she meant it, every bit of it.

"And to answer your question, they're not here. I won't be seeing them for a long time."

"Your parents?" I asked stupidly. She nodded. "Wh-What--"

"I told you already. I tried to run away, just like you are now."

"What makes you think I'm running from something?"

"I can see it all over your face. You're running away from something. That's why you took this flight, isn't it? To get away?"

"I-I..."

"You lost something, didn't you?" I closed my mouth. Figuring by now that, through some means I couldn't understand, this little girl knew just about everything about me and so I decided that I'd just let her do the majority of the talking for herself. "Was it someone you loved? It was for me."

I sank back into my seat, hoping to send the message that I wasn't interested in talking anymore. It didn't convey, and so I could still hear the girl continue. "Was it someone in your family?" She asked in a monotone, droning sort of voice. A voice that you'd expect to hear from a vintage audio cassette, cracked and sort of fuzzy; unclear. "For me, it was my little sister."

I had just fitted one of my earbuds back in and was in the act of fitting the other one when I heard her add, "She burned up and was gone." This made me freeze up; every joint, every muscle, all seizing up at the same time while my heart jackhammered away at my chest.

"Burned up"... "Gone"...

"Wh-What do you--"

"She used to be so happy until that day. We used to always run around the neighborhood, playing together after school. It was always fun with her."

My mind immediately took me through every memory I had stored of me and Irene. Every cherished moment; good, bad, and everything weird in between, from when I'd met her in high school to the day I lost her. Every feature of her face, every tender word she spoke to me, it all started unloading on my brain. It was heavy, overwhelming almost.

"One day, I remember," she continued, "we had just gotten off the bus and were walking the rest of the way home and I saw that she looked depressed. I asked her what was wrong and she told me "Everything's gonna end."

"... All coming to an end..."

"We went home that day and she wouldn't even play with me. When suppertime came, she never came down and when we looked in her room, she was gone. The only thing she left behind was a large black spot in the middle of her floor."

My eyes doubled in size. Black spot... Just like..

I rose up and looked behind my seat again. She was still staring dead at me. "You... You saw this happen, too?" She blankly nodded. My heartbeat abruptly ceased. Then I wasn't crazy...

"We all have, Rick." she said. She pointed to another passenger on the opposite side of us, a couple rows down. "See him?" I nodded. "He lost his brother like that."

"How do you know this?"

"It wasn't an accident, you picking this flight. It wasn't natural, what happened, either." Her head turned to look out of her window -- admittedly the first time I'd seen anybody but me on this flight look anywhere other than forward. My mouth hung agape for a moment.

How does she know all of this? How does she know me or what happened to Irene? I passed a brief glance around at the other passengers. How could it have happened to them?

"Because it's not new, either." chimed the little girl, not looking away from the glass.

"What? H-How are you--"

"Not. New." I went silent again while she sighed and said, "This has been going on for over 100 years or more."

"Wait, huh? The hell do you mean?"

"Look out the window." I turned to face it. Outside of the window, the sky appeared colorless. It was as though the plane had flown into a nimbus so thick that it may as well have been a large pillow, smothering the plane on all sides.

"Wh-What... I-I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. No one usually does. Blind men often don't know they're blind until the truth forces their eyes to open, just to see the truth..." There was a, while dramatic, somewhat sinister pause that she made hang in the air for a solid half a minute before finishing with, "That is nothing at all."

"What? Look, I'm sorry, c-can you just explain what this is? I-I mean, where the hell even are we? Why's everyone so... So..."

"Lost?" she asked, looking down from the window. I froze, then began laughing. Nothing was funny, but at the same time it was funny, if you take my meaning. One of those, "Well, when you put it THAT way..." type deals.

"Yeah... Yeah, maybe that is a good way to put it, ain't it?"

"It's the truth." She was finally looking at me again. Her deadpanned face seemed to fall even further into an expression of sadness. If you could've seen the face of this little girl in that instant, you would've seen the one true definition of the word "hopeless". It was the same look Irene gave me that afternoon. "We're all lost. We're all running."

"From what? What're you talking about here?"

"Why did you board this flight, Ricky?"

"To... To get away for a while."

"Get away from what?" At first, I said nothing. I couldn't see what this little brat was going on about. I wanted her to either giggle and tell me all of this was a joke or start making some sort of sense. I got neither. Instead, she just stared at me expectantly.

"To get away from my hometown for a while, like I just said."

"Why, though, Ricky? What was so wrong with your little town?" I groaned.

"Look, kid, I'm serious when I say this. Just leave me alone if you're not going to just tell me what's going on." She kept gazing directly in my eyes, using them, somehow, to convey a strange, yet oddly familiar, feeling. Numbness. Emptiness.

What in the... What's happening, why am I feeling like this? Where is this place, how'd we get here?

"Not by accident, Ricky." She got up from her seat and walked toward the back of the cabin. I got up from my seat then and started after her.

"Hey, wait!" She ignored me. Her lead was a good few feet ahead of me, yet moving so fast that I thought for sure she'd just disappear all the way to the back before I could even blink. Suddenly, though, she stopped and turned to one of the passengers to her right.

"See him?" She asked, raising her arm to point at the man in the seat. "You see anything wrong?" I looked at the man. He stared forward like everyone else -- though with an admittedly even less emotional expression than the rest.

"What about him?" I asked. "He looks fine to me."

"Really? "Fine?" She cocked her head to the side. "This looks like someone who's "fine" to you?"

"Okay, so he looks down in the dumps, but what's that got to do with--"

"He looks dead, doesn't he?" I exchanged glances back and forth between the two. He stared forward, completely oblivious to either of us.

"I-I guess."

"Well he isn't, but he's not far from it."

"What?"

"Look here." she said, pointing to the man's chest where I saw a hole growing in the center of. My eyes grew.

"The hell?" I asked, shocked. "What is that?"

"It's what happens to us all." She turned to face me again, unbuttoning her shirt a bit to reveal a hole in her own chest. "You have it, too. It's the feeling of emptiness. The pain of loss."

"What do you mean "I have it"? I don't have a--" I stopped, realizing as I passed my hands over my chest that there was something off. Lifting up my shirt, I found to my horror that she was right. Holy shit, a fucking HOLE is in my chest! How? Why? What is--

"This is what it feels like to feel nothing." The girl chimed in.

"Wait, what does that mean? And how do you keep knowing what I'm--"

"I should know, Ricky-boy. It's my fault you're on this flight to begin with." My breath caught in my throat.

"Wait, what? Who... Who are you?" She stared at me, expressing both numbness, as well as expectance. A look that told me she was disappointed I didn't know this sooner. In all honesty, I was telling myself the same thing. "I-Irene? B-But..."

She held up her hand, silencing me. "You remember what I told you, Ricky, about how it would all end?"

"Y-Yeah... I do."

"Well, here we are, at the end." She waved her hands around the cabin.

"I don't understand, you're saying the world's going to end?"

"Yes. For you, leastways."

"Wait, what? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't see the beauty of the world anymore, do you?" I looked again out the window. Dull, gray, lifeless skies surrounded the plane on all sides. "There's no color to you, is there?"

"N-No, but--"

"And no, those aren't clouds, hon. You're seeing the world, but not the world you want to see. You're seeing the world the way that only those who are lost do."

"Lost?"

"Empty". "Dead inside". "Numb". Take your pick, they all mean the same thing. All of them are the products of a lost soul. It happens when we lose something we cherished above all else in the world."

"H-How do you know this? How come you never--"

"Because you weren't lost. You wanted purpose in your life, you wanted a reason to keep going, so I was given to you. I was able to give you a purpose, while filling the hole in my own soul, for a time anyway."

"But... But how? I mean, when did you--"

Her voice got deeper, sounding more like her adult self as she said, "It was Winter. I was about 13 and Penelope was 11. Through everything, good times and bad, whether we were hanging out or fighting with each other, the two of us were each other's best friend. It was snowing out and we decided to go sledding."

Her stare returned to the window. Mine redirected to the man. I began to see the hole spread out more and more, engulfing and dissolving more and more of him away. The more it did, the more I noticed that his body began to glow a distinct sort of golden, orangish color. "I went first," she continued, "Then it was Penelope's turn, but something went wrong. She ended up going much farther than I did, far past the tree line and into the woods. She never came back out, and even after 6 months or more of searching, she was never found."

The hole had swallowed most of the man's chest and was now working its way up and around his neck. I started feeling the familiar warmth coming from him, the same as what I'd felt from Irene before. "That's when my soul became lost."

"Wh-Why are you telling me this? Why am I seeing all of this? What's happening to me?"

She turned back to me with that same stare she'd given me that day on the couch and recited, "Have you not heard a word I said?"

"I have, but it makes no sense. I-I mean, what happened to you? How are you here, why are you a child, why--"

"I tried to run away, just like you are, just like they are." She pointed to the man again, who was now glowing much brighter than a minute ago.

"Wh-What's gonna--"

"He's going to cease to exist. The world has ended for them, and so now he's going to go with it."

"Cease to exist?!" I exclaimed. "H-How do we stop it?"

"You don't. The only ones that can stop that are themselves. They've lost their worlds, we've lost our worlds, and now it's time for us to go away, too."

"But wait, what about you? How are you still here?"

This was when, for the first time, I watched something akin to genuine sadness mold into her small face as she said in her adult voice, "Because of you, Ricky-boy." She came up and tenderly put her hand to my chest. Immediately, the hole in the center of my chest began to slowly open itself wider.

"I told you, as long as you live, I'll always be with you, holding your soul." A feeling of numbness spread throughout my body from my chest. "You've been trying to run from me, just like I was running from my sister. You want to get away because you know you can't let go."

My body felt hollow all of a sudden. All I could think to do was stand there, still as stone, staring slack-jawed at Irene. I couldn't feel anything, inside or out. The hole expanded, swallowing most of my stomach and already beginning to creep down my legs. "Because you won't let go, you've become lost like the rest of us."

"What's going to happen to me?" I asked. There was considerably less emotion in my voice than there should've been. The emptiness was spreading, I realized, hollowing me out mind, body, and spirit.

"The same thing that happened to me." She replied, her voice noticeably cracking. "The world, life itself, will end for you. You won't exist anymore and you will fade from everyone's memory, along with the rest of us."

I would've lost it, hearing this, under normal circumstances. I'd have flown into a panic, trying to undo this, but the thing was... I didn't necessarily want to. I wasn't afraid, mostly, of course, due to the inability to feel at all, but also because a small part of me, the part of me that was consuming me, came to the conclusion that, at least the nightmares would end, right? I would be able to free myself of her, right?

Hell, from a more optimistic perspective, this part of me presented the hope that, whatever happens, maybe I could be reunited with Irene again. We'd be together beyond even time...

Right?

"As long as you live..."

Her words echoed, bringing my naive fantasy crashing back to a grim reality. If I were no longer here, If I no longer existed, then neither would she. I was the only reason she was still here now. Why she'd been around past the age of 13. Why she wasn't completely lost. I had kept her whole, despite me being the downer type of us both. I was the reason she wanted to shine.

I began to feel tears sting my eyes. "I-Ir-Irene..."

"I know you don't want to, Ricky, and I can't blame you if you don't, but please, stop running and let go."

"I-I can't... How do I--"

"It's not too late, you just have to let go of me."

"You mean forget about you?"

"No, not forget. Detach. Accept the truth."

"Of what?"

"That I'm gone. I know it will hurt you, but this will destroy us both if you don't." More and more, feeling returned to my body, bringing with it a sense of something heavy. Something crushing. Something suffocating almost. "I love you, Rick. I never stopped, and I wish I could've stayed. I wish I could've been stronger. But you have always been the strongest of us, and I need you to be strong again now that I'm gone."

The hole in my chest closed up again as I said, my breath shaking and broken in tears, "I love you, too, Irene." Her other hand was then placed onto my chest and I watched the little girl in front of me transform into the familiar form of my beloved wife. Her body shone with an ivory aura that both illuminated the dreary cabin surrounding us, as well as overshadow everything and everyone around us and her face welcomed me with her warmest, most tender smile.

In the short space of time this occurred, there were no sounds; from me, her, or anything else around. It was me and her, amid a beautiful white space. Serenity...

Her hands moved tenderly from my chest and up and around my neck. My hands reflexively move around her waist, gently pulling her closer to me. Then, at last, we kiss and it was like every ounce of every emotion I'd kept bottled up channeled through my lips and into hers. She was taking all of my sorrow, all of my grief, my misery, and taking into her. It was my relief. Her way of holding me for comfort the same way I had her that day.

I didn't feel her pull away. The only thing I did feel was an intense pain throughout my body as I woke to find myself sprawled out on the summit of a mountain. My head was throbbing madly and my vision was little more than a giant cloud. That said, I realized something then. I could distinguish the color of the grass on the mountain around me.

Not only that, but I looked up and was instantly blinded by the light of the sun. The colors, the heat, the life around me, it was all normal again. When my eyes adjusted a bit more, I found that hunks of the plane around me, scattered everywhere. I attempted to sit up, which took a bit of effort but I managed to do, before looking around to see if any of the other passengers had survived whatever the hell apparently happened while I was blacked out.

That's when I found, to my shock, that there was no trace of anyone else at all. I didn't know what to expect, really, but I would've figured there would've at least been one or two of their bodies, or maybe parts of it, something to signify that they were on the plane. But there was nothing. Only me.

Struggling to my feet, I managed to wade through, staggering, until I found the discarded cockpit. I picked up the dangling radio, again, not really knowing what the hell I was supposed to expect, and began trying to buzz somebody for help. I was a bit amazed then when I began to hear the chopping of helicopter blades from outside. When I went back out, there it was, a rescue helicopter. I waved 'em down and from there, I was lifted off the mountain and to the hospital in the next closest town.

I spent at least a week in the hospital before I was let go, having miraculously (a term that every nurse, surgeon, and orderly at the hospital repeatedly used to the point that I now find the word annoying, despite being the most accurate in my case), sustained no major injuries. In that time, I found out that the chopper came after the pilot supposedly made a distress call of some sort before the line went completely dead and they couldn't reestablish contact.

The official story is that Flight 249 entered turbulent weather and was struck by a bolt of lightning, bringing it to the mountain. Obviously, that never explained what happened with the other passengers, including the pilot who made the call that saved my life, and I don't think there'll ever be a definitive answer on paper. I've seen internet searches about "The missing passengers of Flight 249" and theories as to what happened. I won't go into them here, but suffice to say, they're completely inaccurate, as well as proof of what she'd told me on the plane.

In each of these "theories", one thing always stands out to me. None of the passengers are ever named except me. In other words, despite being a commercial airline, despite the fact that there should've been a flight list with names, none are ever mentioned. In other words, they're as good as nonexistent, speculated about only because of the fact that I alone was found. When asked for my version of the story, I fed them the line that everything was fine until I went to sleep, only to wake up on the mountain. Not the best attempt at a lie, mind you, but I knew they wouldn't believe me about Irene, about the end of everyone's worlds and all. They didn't before...

This was all two weeks ago. I came back home after leaving the hospital and for the past two weekends, I've taken to hiking the mountain where I was going to propose to Irene. I know you probably expected me to become a hermit for a while after something like what I've written -- trust me, I get it -- but I understood why I couldn't do that. It was that kind of life that almost costed me my existence as a whole. Almost costed Irene's, too.

Thinking back to the plane, I realized what she meant. I'd gotten on the plane because I couldn't handle life here at home without her, so I tried to run away to forget. In doing so, I almost couldn't stop it from eating me whole, the same way it did to her all those years ago. She saved me, though, got me to be strong, like she always had and I could keep her memory alive, happily, instead of drowning myself in it.

This last weekend, coming up to the spot on the mountain where she'd disappeared three years ago, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring I'd meant to give her. I'd never gotten rid of it, always carrying it with me. Taking it out of the box, I placed it on the spot where she was.

"I love you, Irene. Now and forever, though heaven and through hell. I am the best man I can be because of you. The only things I can say to that are thank you, and... Will you marry me?"