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Earning the feeling

“I’m sorry.”

This was the first words that Eden delivered, after we both stopped screaming; all we could do was pant heavily as our breath slowly left our lungs and our eyes slowly adjusted to the dim cabin lighting.

The truth behind her words would be that I had spoken. It was out of instinct, a need to communicate, but most likely it had come out wrong.

She had thought I was about to attack, which was understandable given the extreme circumstances, but I had only spoken out of pain.

The very first words that I had uttered, after several long minutes had passed, were “The wheel.”

Even as I tried to speak, I felt the blood flow through my head as if something below was attempting to force its way out. Worse still was the incredibly severe headache that turned to an all-consuming pain once I tried to open my eyes. As my lids slid upwards I winced at the intense light that now filled the cabin.

Excruciating pain filled my head as I moved to shield my eyes, the blinding light wasn’t helping my headache, but as I sat back up, once again remembering what had happened, I surveyed my surroundings.

The last thing that I remember was Eden staring at me; there was betrayal in her eyes. And I had seen it before.

“Eden” I mustered the strength to say and slowly turned my head, but it took great effort to raise my hand because as I did, my muscles strained against the pain that was splitting every muscle in my body apart. I winced at the intense pain, but at least my eyes could see now.

Eden was sat in one of the leather seats, arms hanging limply by her sides, eyes at a distance.

Her face was aged, the dull and lifeless expression completely devoid of any real emotion.

She was staring straight ahead, her hands buried in her long, brown, wavy hair. I glanced at the clock on the dash, and the time it showed was ‘nineteen minutes, seventeen seconds’.

I looked back at her, my body slowing adjusting to the pain; it was still there, but I felt more stable than I had a moment ago. I could sense a whirring sound from the engine and then realised from the site of her eyes that she wasn’t staring ahead, but rather at a small black screen on the dash next to the panel containing the clock.

At the bottom of the screen was the words ‘Press Start’. I looked at it for what seemed like an aeon, trying to make sense of it, when the voice spoke again, “Start the engine.”

I turned to see Eden still sat motionless; she hadn’t moved, or spoken, and once again I turned to look at the screen, trying to make sense of what I saw.

“Eden.” I pleaded again and once more was met with silence.

I turned back to the screen to see it was black.

“To the extreme, Eden, I’m sorry.” I said, looking back approvingly to the clock, “nineteen minutes, twenty seconds.”

I could feel a heaviness in my left arm, trying to work it. I murmured to try and stop the discomfort and was met with complete silence once more.

Again, I turned to the screen, still awaiting some type of response from Eden, but when I didn’t get the expected reaction I turned again to her.

She was still staring blankly ahead; the silence seemed to close in on me.

I tried again to speak to her, but her silence was deafening.

“Eden.” I said, but again there was nothing.

I sat with nothing to do but wait for something to happen.

---

The minutes passed quickly and were also slow to come, I hadn’t been able to sense how long we had been sat there for; I had merely sat static and watched the clock.

Five minutes had passed when the screen flickered back to life, I turned to look at it, it read ‘Press Start’ once more. I could feel a deep craving coming from the engine below.

There was something strange about the screen, in that it didn’t seem to be reflecting any light. The blackness it displayed was a deep and dense contrast to the white interior of the cockpit, so much lighter than the screen.

I shuffled to the linear thought that I wanted to wake Eden, and when I spoke I received no answer again, but then I contemplated that it might have been something to do with the engine voltage and changed direction immediately.

The screen was no longer black, but its new colour was bright white, almost painfully so to the eyes.