"LOOK OUT OF THE WINDOW, PEOPLE."

The metallic clang of the captain's voice boomed over the passengers' head.

"We're entering the Cloud Kingdom of Audra in a few minutes, hold tight."

"Yoohoo look!" Nina was tugging at Alizeh's arm again. Obviously their previous conversation was long forgotten as Nina was back to her usual chatty self. Hearing her blabber throughout the journey was a comfort in itself. It allowed Alizeh to think about the future course of action — if there was a future though.

"Alizeh look!" she poked Alizeh right on her belly.

"Wooo, that's soft!" she literally poked her two more times before realising it was rude.

"Oops! Sorry," she bit her tongue. "I shouldn't have done that but you feel like the teddy bear I couldn't slept without as a kid."

"Is that another way to say that I'm fat?" Alizeh raised her eyebrows.

"No, not that — " Nina sat up straighter, colour rushing to her cheeks, "it's just that —"

She lowered her eyes, biting her lips.

"What?"

"That you're super cute and fluffy and totally huggable!" Nina leaned against her suddenly, throwing open her seat belt, engulfing her into a hug.

Alizeh was so shocked at the sudden touch that she stiffened.

"Oh! I'm sorry," Nina withdrew, fidgeting with her hands, "I didn't mean to."

Alizeh's breath sped up. It was too awkward and sudden. The warm touch of hands around her had completely taken her off guard.

"I'm not used to human touch actually. No one has ever hugged me," Alizeh said slowly.

"Your parents?"

"Too busy with their own careers. I was brought up by a robot Nanny and learnt to fend for myself since I was five."

"Friends?"

"Disliked me since I was fat. They only stuck with me since I had money and could afford to waste it on them. Never had any friends who truly liked me for me, I guess, " Alizeh's eyes turned moist, tears threatening to overflow.

"Oh poor you..." Nina looked sad. "Someone like you deserves so many hugs."

"It's okay!" Alizeh smiled. "You're here now. You'll complete my quota of hugs."

"WE'RE ENTERING THE CLOUD KINGDOM" the intercom buzzed to life, shattering their little moment.

Alizeh looked out of the window at the whiteness surrounding them which looked like condensed tinned milk and balls of cotton candy. The gateway soon gave way to the clear blue sky, a sight which had long been obscured by grey polluting particles on the earth.

"There's Cloud One!" someone from the back seat commented. "Lucky bastards"

"Why lucky?" Alizeh whispered to Nina.

"It's the home of the elite! The heads of all countries call this home."

The vast cloud looked dark purple like the twilight sky and was edged with gold, as the sun shone behind it, creating an unearthly aura. The cloud screamed royalty.

"I wonder how they created this land to stay. I mean clouds are supposed to be fluffy but they're holding the weight of entire cities, " Alizeh wondered out loud.

"It's pretty simple," a girl from the seat behind looked up from her magazine, "They actually used cloud condensing gas which turned the clouds to a state between just gas, liquid and solid and stashed together those pieces, welding them along the edges with ion guns."

"How does that work?"

"I'm an artist, not an engineer, duh!" she commented, going back to the magazine.

"Look at that cloud! " Nina squealed again.

It was a shade of gorgeous soft pink, almost like a makeup sponge. The pink changed hues between peach and purple. The edges were lined with neon pink railings.

"Don't tell me fairy princesses live there."
Nina rolled her eyes.

"Not really, but you could kind of say that. It's Cloud Two. The home of the film stars from over the globe," the unknown girl answered again, her nose still in the magazine, which Alizeh now recognised to be the 'Grazia'.

"It's classy, posh, fashionable and so not my type," she finished, putting the magazine away.

Alizeh got a good look at her finally. She had a shock of close-cropped copper curls and a slightly flattened nose. But what stood out most was her eyes. They were woodland green, which reminded Alizeh of forests she had seen in her history textbooks. She had piercings on her eyebrows and was wearing six metallic rings on her entire earlobe.

Dark, dangerous and alluring — Alizeh thought. The stranger seemed  like a mysterious, brooding personality so Alizeh turned her gaze back to the window.

"And that I guess is Cloud Nine," Alizeh pointed at a grey cloud looming over the horizon like a monster waiting to engulf them.

"Wait what? Aren't they supposed to be electrically balanced or something?" Nina placed a hand on her mouth.

Alizeh focused on where she was looking, just in time to see a lighting bolt zap along the edge of the cloud, sizzling the air around.

"That kind of temperature could fry us!" Nina exclaimed.

"Don't you get it?" the girl with green eyes looked frustrated, "It's all right in our face. They don't want us around. We're just a waste of space for them, so they're dumping us on an unsafe and malfunctioning cloud. They're hoping that our kind would die out by ourselves."

Another spark galloped over the cloud's edge. The plane tumbled as it hit an air pocket. The thunder rumbled close by. It seemed to be coming straight from Alizeh's heart as the sound reverberated through her body.

Another jolt and a few people were thrown off their seats. Alizeh's glasses disappeared somewhere, leaving her blurry-eyed.

"Are we going through that?" someone commented.

"Oh boy! We're so doomed." another replied.

"We have an emergency,passengers," the microphone crackled at the worst possible moment. "We need to do a crash landing. The plane's engine has caught fire."

"Crash landing on a cloud? Are you serious?" Nina screamed just as a sudden zap exploded one of the wings in a firework of splintered metal and the plane started plummeting to their death.