#THE_UNKNOWN (A series of short horrifying stories)
   
Author: Sam Freddy
   
Issue 5: PLAIN SUICIDE
   
Part 5
   
    In spite of my state of shock, I managed to button up my shirt to conceal my boobs from my male colleagues. All eyes were now on me, staring at me as if I was a vicious murderer.
   
    Needless to say, nobody even wanted to go close to Raji Khan’s dead body, let alone touch it, to avoid leaving fingerprints that might implicate them later for something they thought I did.
   
    Terrified, Koffee still maintained her distance from me, waiting for me to speak. But, in actuality, I had nothing reasonable to say; I didn’t even know how to defend my innocence in everyone’s presence. I was as quiet as a snowflake, breathing fast, bleeding, and sweating profusely. I didn’t know what to do at all.
   
    I was purely unsettled, and scared. Very, very scared.
   
    Under pressure, I started rehearsing explanations in my head, contemplating on what and what not to say, but it was already far too late for me. I had barely even started thinking when a female colleague fearfully said, “Screw this! I’m going downstairs to inform the security officers about this immediately.”
   
    In a flash, she was gone. Some people followed suit. Koffee, however, stayed behind with three other people who were impatiently waiting for me to say something.
   
    “Alice, talk to me! Please!” Koffee begged with a pleading look on her face. “What happened here? What did you do to him?” She asked all at once, wide-eyed. “Is he dead?”
   
    Swiftly, I looked at Raji’s lifeless body and then refocused on Koffee’s face after confirming what I wanted to know. “Yes, he’s dead,” I answered with teary eyes. “But I didn’t do it. I didn’t do anything to him. I swear on my mother’s grave!”
   
    “Bullcrap!” a female colleague spat, angrily. “You are a bloody liar. You definitely murdered that man, Alice. He was a good man, for goodness’ sake! Why did you kill him? Who paid you to do this?”
   
    “Shut the hell up, Agnes. This is not the time to apportion blames on anybody.” Koffee yelled at the loudmouthed woman on my behalf, pointing a finger at her menacingly. “If you can’t help matters, then don’t worsen it. Just keep your stupid mouth shut, for your own good!”
   
    Surprisingly, that was all it took to silence Agnes’ big mouth once and for all. She obviously feared Koffee so much, probably because of Koffee’s intimidating stature. Compared to Koffee’s height, Agnes was a penguin, and a weak one at that. She was all talk and no action. A typical coward, she was!
   
    However, looking back at me, Koffee said, “So, what actually happened to him, Alice? Who did this?”
   
    With a heavy sigh, I answered, “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you the truth, Koffee. My reason seems dumb.”
   
    “Just talk!”
   
    “Okay,” I nodded and finally stood up from the floor, maintaining a certain distance from my colleagues. “An evil spirit did this,” I confessed, honestly. “A supernatural, evil woman from hell. She was the one that killed Raji, not me. God knows I’m innocent. I swear!”
   
    Instantly, Agnes gave me a complex look, probably thinking that I needed urgent medical attention. Koffee, however, had a look of both surprise and concern etched on her face as she said, “Calm down, Alice. As crazy as this sounds, I actually believe you. There’s something weird going on in this plane that I can’t figure out yet.”
   
    With her eagle eyes, Koffee finally noticed the blood stains on my red shirt and gasped in shock. “Oh, my God. Alice, is that blood coming out of you?” she asked with her palms covering her mouth, thereby muffling her voice as she quickly added, “Alice, you are really bleeding! You need help!”
   
    As Koffee attempted to get closer to me, the mysterious woman appeared out of nowhere, right in the middle of the room! We were all so shaken by her sudden appearance that we screamed like frightened little chickens in a cage.
   
    Agnes was pretty much pissing her pants now, I could bet on that.
   
    “What the hell do you want from me?!” I yelled at the top of my voice, pointing a finger at the hideous being. “What did I ever do to you, huh? For God’s sake, why can’t you just leave me alone?”
   
    “I can’t do that,” she spoke in a subtle, terrifying voice that echoed in the room so badly. “You offended my great-granddaughter without showing remorse for your actions, and by virtue of your inflated ego, you have earned my wrath and my curse!”
   
    “Which is?” Koffee asked boldly, although afraid, still.
   
    “Death!” The evil being replied and disappeared. She then reappeared in front of Koffee with a knife. “Next time, in your next life, stay away from issues that don’t concern you, stupid girl.”
   
    With that, she stabbed Koffee’s belly brutally, and then dipped her hand into Koffee’s belly and pulled out her intestines in one fluid motion.
   
    Horrified, my colleagues and I took to our heels and didn’t stop until we were downstairs with the other passengers—far away from the upstairs restroom.
   
    Some first-class passengers also followed us whilst running, even though they had no idea what was going on. But as for Raji’s entourage, they all rushed into the restroom to check on their boss the very moment me and my colleagues ran out of there.
   
    Fortunately, we met the security officers on our way down the stairs, so we all had some sense of hope, knowing that the officers would protect us from that ‘thing’ at all costs.
   
    Standing in the midst of people, I soon realized that so many people’s eyes were on me because of the injuries I’d sustained on my back and my right hand. My blood was very visible now, so it easily attracted almost everyone’s attention from every nook and cranny of the plane. Or maybe that wasn’t the sole reason for their killing stares.
   
    Unknown to me, the news about Raji Khan’s death had somehow managed to spread through the second-class passengers just within a short time frame, and I was still the prime suspect for sure. No wonder everyone avoided me and only gazed from a safe distance. There were also whisperings and murmurings all around me. I felt so awful.
   
    My close friend just died the most savage death I had ever seen, and I was badly wounded with a lot of blood oozing out of me, yet nobody even cared enough to help. Instead, they were all pointing accusing fingers at me, blaming me for what I didn’t do.
   
    It was, indeed, very disheartening for me.
   
    As I opened my mouth to speak, I caught sight of the evil woman, walking down the staircase very slowly. She had her creepy eyes on me, and her sharp, blood-stained knives strapped in her ever strong hands.
   
    As expected, I started panicking; crying and pacing and screaming and pointing at the staircase, but, strangely, nobody else could see her, no matter how hard they looked or squinted their eyes. It was like the naked, creepy woman was suddenly invisible to everyone else but me. Not even Agnes or my colleagues—who’d all seen her before—could see her now, and I wondered why.
   
    I was beyond frustrated!
   
    Distressed, I yelled with tears streaming down my cheeks: “IS THERE NOBODY HERE WHO CAN SEE THAT EVIL, OLD WOMAN COMING TOWARDS US?”
   
    Expectedly, the passengers were quiet. Nobody uttered a single word. They all thought I was mad, but in actuality, they were the ones driving me nuts without even knowing it!
   
    I was on the verge of losing my mind when someone tapped me on my right leg, softly. Much to my surprise, it was the same disabled girl who I met earlier at the passageway, close to the second-class restroom. She handed me a paper that reads, “I can see her, Alice. She is on the staircase, coming for everyone.”
   
    Confused, I asked, “What do you mean by ‘everyone’? I thought she was only after me?”
   
    After reading my lips, the little girl quickly scribbled on a paper and then gave it to me. “Yes, she was initially after you, but there’s a change of plans now,” I read aloud from the paper. “I saw a terrible vision some minutes ago. This time around, it’s either you or us. If you don’t surrender yourself to her, she’ll kill every single one of us on this plane, Alice.”
   
    Baffled, I stared at the paper in my hand as though it were horse poop. There were so many scary thoughts going on in my head the more I stared at it.
   
    Fearfully, I dropped the paper on the floor and mashed it with my foot.
   
    Then, with a slight sniffle, I muttered, “So, what you’re trying to tell me is that I must sacrifice myself for everyone’s safety, right?”
   
    The little girl nodded in the affirmative, wearing a sad facial expression.
   
    “Is there no other way?” I asked as a single tear dribbled down my left cheek. “Does it have to end like that?”
   
    Full of pity, the child handed me another paper which reads, “Unfortunately, it does. It’s the only way. If you don’t surrender, we’ll all die.”
   
    After reading the content of the paper, I started looking around me. There were, indeed, so many people on the plane: so many beautiful babies, lovely mothers, brave fathers, innocent children, newlyweds, old folks and disabled men and women. Looking at them made more tears stream down my cheeks in rapid successions.
   
    Every single person was either somebody’s son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister, husband or wife. They all had their respective families to live for, but I was an orphan since birth, raised in a poor orphanage. I had nobody to hold on to, so I had absolutely nothing to lose if I were to sacrifice myself.
   
    Knowing that I surely wouldn’t endanger the lives of more than two hundred people for nothing, I looked down at the little girl standing before me and said, “Don’t worry, dear. I won’t let that happen.”
   
    Then I forced a smile and added, “But I won’t surrender either.”
   
    “So what do you intend to do?” I read from the next paper which I was given.
   
    As more tears flowed from my puffy eyes, I went to the nearest window and stood there without saying a word to the girl, for there was nothing left to say. The time for talking was over, it was now time to take solid actions.
   
    ‘Why surrender myself to a cruel witch when I could easily end my life by my own will?’ I thought to myself, sorrowfully. ‘After all, this window is big enough to fit my slender body.’
   
    At this point, everyone was looking at me, wondering what I wanted to do by standing next to a closed window. How tragic!
   
    If only they knew exactly what I had in mind at that moment. God, if only they did, then, perhaps, they would’ve tried to stop me, but they didn’t know. So, with one last glare at the demon on the staircase, I opened the window and flipped two middle fingers at her, screaming, “Goodbye, bitch! See you in hell!”
   
    That said, I jumped out of the window with a satisfied smile on my face, knowing that even if I end up dead, I at least saved hundreds of people on that haunted airplane.
   
    While freefalling from the sky, I realized something vital: it was worth it. At least my name will always be remembered in history, provided that my body and this entire phone recording are found in the depth of the ocean.
   
    It shall be said that I, Alice Johnson, died a hero on December 4, 2015.
   
    What more could anyone possibly ask for?
   
    . . .
   
    𝒇𝒊𝒏.