My eyes snapped open as I quickly sat up. There was a slight pain at the back of my head and my body was experiencing a woozy feeling. My eyes had a slight haze to them that seemed to clear the more I tried to focus. Once they were fully clear, I saw the faces of two flight attendants as they stared down at me with concerned faces.
“Are you alright?”
“What happened?” I asked trying to stand up. One of the flight attendants grabbed a hand to help me up.
“One of the pipes seems to have busted causing you to slip. I am so sorry. This has never happened aboard Delta Airlines and I assure you that we—”
The flight attendant continued to rattle on as I tuned her out. None of this made sense. I don’t remember there being any water on the floor when I came in. Closing my eyes, I told myself to concentrate as I thought back to what really happened in here. One by one, images started to come back to me and before I knew it, I had remembered everything. I had been attacked. The person that had killed my father had tried to kill me, and he’d even threatened Yuri.
“Yuri.” I said. I pushed through the two flight attendants and made my way through the plane back to our seats. The flight attendants were shouting something to me but I ignored them. I spotted Yuri’s blond head over the seat as I neared her. But when I finally reached her, she was eating her meal as if everything was normal.
Sensing me, she turned and smiled. “There you are. I was wondering how long you were going to take in the restroom. It was the chicken that messed your stomach up, wasn’t it?” I said nothing. I only continued to stare at her. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Reaching across the seat, I pulled Yuri into a hug as I tightened my grasp around her. She tried to maneuver out of my arms but my grasp was too tight for her to go anywhere. She finally stopped fighting and before I knew it she was patting me on the back. I was aware of people’s eyes on us, but I didn’t care. My heart felt as if it was going to burst out of my chest and my legs were shaky. I have never been this scared in my life.
“Excuse me miss.”
I released my hold on Yuri as I turned to stare at the same flight attendants. They still wore concerned expressions on their faces, but I knew most of it was because they were thinking I was going to sue their airline and get them into trouble. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning to sue you guys.”
The flight attendant faces flushed as they wave their hands. “Oh forgive us, we didn’t mean to give you that impression. We were checking to make sure you were okay. The water seemed to have soaked your clothes and its giving off the appearance that you might have had a little accident.”
Yuri and I stared down at my jeans. They were right. It did seem as if I’d wet myself. Sighing, I rubbed a hand through my hair. After ensuring the flight attendants that I was fine once again, they finally left me alone with Yuri.
“Okay Autumn, what’s going on? You haven’t hugged me since I found out my grandmother died.”
“Someone attacked me?”
Yuri eyes widened. “What? Who attacked you?”
“I think it was my father’s killer. He cornered me in the restroom. He even said he’d done something to you, but you appear to be fine.”
“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just super sleepy but that’s it. Jesus Autumn. I’m so sorry that I didn’t come in to check on you. I was just thought you were using the restroom. Why didn’t you tell the flight attendants?”
“Because I don’t even know what he looks like. He was wearing a mask.” I said. At that, I turned to look around the plane to see if anyone was watching me. No one seemed to be paying attention.
“Do you think he’s here with us in first class?”
“I don’t know.”
The rest of the flight Yuri and I sat on edge. Every few minutes I would peer around my seat into the isle as if I could feel him watching me. I started to get curious glances from the flight attendants which once again got them to ask me if everything was okay.
The plane finally landed in Paris. Yuri and I followed the flight attendants as they led us to the door and thanked us for flying with Delta Airlines. I climbed down the stairs and stepped aside to wait for Yuri. As I watched her, I noticed there was something off about her. She appeared as if she could barely hold herself up. Was she really that sleepy? Granted she did stay up most of the night, but the sleep she got on the plane should have cured all of that. She finally reached the last step as she blinked her eyes against the light.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She said with a smile that trembled around the edges. Something wasn’t right.
She took a step forward and almost went over. I caught her in my arms as I felt how sweaty her arms were. “Yuri, you are not fine. You’re burning up.” Yuri opened her mouth to say something to me that ended up getting lost in translation as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted. “Yuri! Yuri!”
The flight attendants rushed down the steps to help me as two men who were on the flight helped to pick her up. They loaded her up on a cart as they tried to figure out what was the closest hospital. As I climbed up on the cart with them, I noticed a man standing in the shadows near the back of the plane. Squinting my eyes, I tried to get a better look, but the cart had pulled off to a start and was heading further away from the plane as the unknown man began to shrink in the distance.
I sat in the waiting room of the hospital waiting to hear some news on Yuri. My nerves were on edge as I tried to restrain myself from not marching back behind the double doors. I was worried for several reasons. According to our credit card history, we were supposed to be checked into a hotel in New York. If our parents were to find out that we were someplace different, we would have some serious explaining to do. Thankfully, we had new identities made before we left. However, I wasn’t so sure it was going to help us if the nurses decided they needed more information.
Once again, I got up from my seat and went to peer through the small glass window. No one was coming. Sighing, I walked back to my seat and plopped down. Leaning my head back, I tried to figure out what exactly had happened to Yuri. Fifteen minutes later, the doors opened as the nurse came out to tell me that I could see her. Getting up, I followed the nurse through the doors and down the hall until we got to the room Yuri was in. Entering the room, I spotted Yuri in the hospital bed, her arm hooked up to an IV as she sucked on something from a plastic cup. I quickly made my way over to her and grasped her hand.
“The doctor will be here to talk with you shortly.”
“Thank you.”
The nurse left the room, leaving me alone with Yuri. “So did they say anything?”
“No. But they did give each other suspicious glances before leaving the room. I think I’m just dehydrated though.”
“You’re not dehydrated. You had something to drink on the plane. No this is something else.”
Yuri and I waited for the doctor to return. He finally entered the room and he closed the door behind him.
“Hello I’m Doctor Parks.” He gave us a smile as Yuri smiled back. I was the only one that wasn’t smiling. There was something off about this doctor. He appeared to be nervous. I was worried. What was he so nervous about?
“How is she? Will she be okay?”
“She’ll be fine now. We’ve clean all of the dangerous toxins out of her system that was causing her to be ill.” Dr. Parks turned a glance to Yuri. “Miss Harvey, did you take any pills while on the plane.” It seems the hospital wasn’t aware yet of our fake identities.
“No.”
“Why do you ask that?” I asked.
“It appears that Miss Harvey has been the victim of food poisoning. We found a good amount of crushed poinsettia in your system that seemed to be mixed with your food. D
id you eat any Mexican food in the last twenty four hours?”
Yuri nodded. We’d gone out for Mexican food with Taylor and Kerry Friday night. It was supposed to be a kick off dinner for our first mission.
“I don’t understand. I had Mexican food as well, but I feel okay.”
“That’s what troubles me.” Dr. Park said. “It seems that whoever made your food, intentionally gave you large amounts of the poison, but not enough to kill you.” The doctor was about to say something else, but a knock on the door stopped him. The nurse from earlier appeared in the door as she and the doctor exchanged glances.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“Sure.”
The doctor exited the room quickly as he threw one more nervous glance in our direction. As soon as the door closed, I turned to Yuri. “Get up, we’re leaving.”
“What?” She said in confusion. “Why?”
“The doctor has called the police on us. He’s been stalling until they arrived ever since he stepped into this room. The police are going to discover we’re lying about who we say we are and then it’ll all be over before it began. Plus, they’re going to want answers to questions that we can’t answer. We need to leave.”
Yuri climbed from the bed and tore her IV from her arm. She slipped on her shoes as I cleaned the end of the IV off with an alcohol pad before sticking it into a wad of tissue, and tucking it into my pocket. I couldn’t chance them finding any evidence that we were here. I grabbed our bags that the airport workers had brought here and pulled them over my shoulder. Yuri offered to grab one but I shook my head. She would need all the energy she could to help us escape this room. I couldn’t have her dropping one of the bags and getting us caught. Yuri grabbed her cup, taking it with her, as I opened up the door. Peering out into the hall, I glanced towards the end where the doctor had his back towards us. He was talking with two police officers. Reaching behind me, I latched onto Yuri’s arm as we quickly and quietly made our way out of the room, and down the hall to the opposite end where to elevators were located. Luck seemed to be on our side because they opened the minute we reached them. We quickly blended in with the exiting passengers and moved to the side out of the view of the opening. The doors closed and I pressed the button for the first floor.
The elevator landed on the first floor as Yuri and I exited. We made our way towards the front of the hospital without attracting attention. Stepping outside the doors, we headed away from the hospital, blending in with the people on the sidewalk.