Death Lingers At Every Corner (Trigger Warning - DEATH)

'Come on, James, we've got to get going.'

'But dad, Remus says he's got a bad feeling about the trip. I think we should trust him.'

'Remus is just trying to put a damper on a good time. Come on, kiddo, hop in.'

James shook his head and held his arms in a hug against his chest.

James' mom grabbed one of his hands and swung in front of him, crouching on the steps.

'It's okay, sweetie, nothing bad is gonna happen as long as we're together.' She winked and touched the tip of his nose lightly with her fingertip.

James let out a little giggle and nodded his head, running with his arms behind his back down the walkway toward their Subaru minivan, waking airplane sounds as he went.

James' father scooped him up under the arms and spun him around, playing along with the joke.

'Coming in for landing, whoosh. This is your captain speaking, we are coming in for a landing. Destination?'

'Wasaga Falls!' James chimed in.

James' dad shook him a little as he put him down to simulate the landing of the plane they were about to board.

It was James' first time and he was more than over the moon with excitement. He's always been fascinated about anything to do with the sky. The stars and constellations, birds, planes, anything that goes up in the air or is near the sky and able to look down on the world below in such minuscule detail was all he could talk about. So being able to board a plane for the first time in his entire eight years of life, he was ecstatic.

The drive wasn't as long to the airport as they had anticipated, though, it felt a little longer with James going on and on about the different types of planes there were from his book about Aviation Models Throughout The Years.

Everything from bi-planes to military jets, to cruise airliners. He was also interested in other forms of transportation such as trains trucks and other large heavy machinery, but the sky was where it was at for his most prized possession. He wanted to either be an astronaut, or in the air force. He hadn't decided yet which was cooler, although his father said he could always be both, James wanted just one occupation for life.

When they arrived at the airport, the air felt stale and dry from the dehumidifiers sucking the humidity out of the sticky spring air.

‘There’s our gate, let’s go wait until they call us over.’

Walking through customs, having their bags and themselves scanned, the only thing that made the detector go off were James’ braces. His teeth had all prematurely come out, doctor said it was a root rot from childhood. His parents assumed too many sweets, but is just as common in children as it is in adults, due to infection and can cause swollen gums and irritation. He almost had to have surgery to remove the teeth it got so bad, but the teeth fell out all on their own (some with a little bit of help from his dad, some string, and a doorknob, until they realised it made things worse and his dad felt worse than anything).  

Sitting down by the gate, they waited, and James looked through any and every book and magazine he saw, walked over to the vending machine a couple of times, and paced back and forth, until they heard over the intercom, ‘Gate 103 to Washitah, Missisauga boarding now.’ 

‘Oh, that’s us. Come on, kiddo, grab your stuff,’ James’ father urged.

Waltzing over to the gate, they went through customs again, and again the detector went off for James’ braces. Once they were through, James handed his bags to his dad and he put them in the overhead compartment on the plane. 

They got to their designated seats and sat down. A stewardess walked in and explained to them along with a video that played on all of our monitors and the voice of the pilot over the intercom. 

‘Greetings, and welcome to Grapevine Airline. Where our goal is to safe travel and luxury at a lesser value. Enjoy your flight. 

The pilot explained what the oxygen masks were for, when they drop, and how and when to use them. He explained about the seatbelts and when the light is on and off and what it means. And other things of the sort.

‘Dad, I have to go to the bathroom,’ James pleaded. 

‘Can you hold it for a minute, buddy? Let’s just let the nice man finish what he’s saying and let us know when it’s safe to move, okay?’ 

‘It’s okay, George. I’ll take him.’

James’ father gave a slight frown at his wife, Meredith, as she raised her hand and waved it a little at the stewardess, as she was about to leave to talk to the pilot. 

‘Sorry to interrupt, my son really has to go potty, can we just quickly go before the plane takes off?’

The stewardess smiled and stepped aside with a small grin and pointed in the direction of the bathroom. In the back there were a couple groans of protests and a whispered, ‘come on, lady.’

She resisted the urge to whip around and give them all a hard glare. Walking James to the bathroom, she felt something was a little off. Her motherly instincts were kicking in.

‘James, I overheard you say Remus felt something bad was going to happen, what exactly did Remus mean by that?’

‘Just that something bad was going to happen on the trip. He didn’t say what or when. I can ask him if you want.’

‘No honey, it’s okay. Don’t bother him with the details. I was just curious.’

But the weary feeling didn’t go away. 

When they got back to their seats and buckled in, Meredith’s heart started to race.

‘George, I think James is right, I think something bad is going to happen on this trip. And I think it’s going to be a problem with the plane.’

‘No fooling around, you guys are both putting dow the trip. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just wait and see.’

As the plane lifted off, all seemed normal. No turbulence, no disturbances. They went almost 2 hours without any issues, ⅔ of their trip and everything was fine.

‘See, nothing to worrry about.’ George gave Meredith a wide ear-to-ear grin, teeth showing, pearly white and straight as a board. He’s always had perfect teeth. They know where James didn’t get the genetics from, unfortunately. 

All of a sudden the plane dipped harshly and the air masks dropped from the ceiling, the seatbelt button began flashing indicating to passengers to engage their seatbelts. 

‘No worry, folks. We’re just experiencing some—’ and the last word got cut out as the plane begane to dip further and further, shuddering as it went. People began screaming and James started to cry.

‘I told you we should’ve listened to Remus!’ James yelled at his parents. 

‘I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, buddy. It’ll be alright, come to dada.’ 

James crawled over the seat and held on tight ot his father and he rebuckled the two of them into his seat. 

Although not many others had their masks on, he put one onto James to keep him safe. Meredith didn’t have her’s on and stared out the window as they began to skip across the sky. 

‘Remus, help us,’ James called out to his imaginary friend who was no where insight. Except Mereditth saw him. In the window behind her, was a man with a pale face, long black hooded cloak and a scythe in his hand. She whipped around and didn’t see him, but when she turned back to the window, a pale hollow face stared back at her with a toothy grin.

She let out a blood curdling howl in fear and tried her best to back up from the window with her seatbelt still on. James didn’t stir, and actually fell asleep, or so they thought. Anyone that had a mask on had fallen asleep suddenly. George checked his son’s heartbeat and it was shallow, almost non-existant.

‘James? James? James, wake up? Oh God, no, no no.’ 

Meredith looked over at her son and put a hand to her mouth with tears in her eyes. 

‘George, we really should have listened to Remus.’ She pointed to the window and there he was. 

The Grim Reaper stared Geroge back in the face, it’s hollow eyesockets staring into his soul and he felt a shiver crawl through every fibre of his being.