"I'm not insane. Let go of me. Max! Maximum, where are you? Save mom."
Two male nurses dragged Jolly out of the house. The psych car closed, shutting her voice. Hannah stared down from her balcony, holding the rugged bear Jolly carried around.
"Such a nuisance."
"Everything is done," a husky voice said from the shadows.
"Good"
_
BOOM!
The aircraft exploded midair.
Fire swallowed the fuselage as burning debris rained into the sea. On the ground, horrified onlookers watched the plane vanish in a cloud of black smoke.
No one could have survived.
Twenty minutes earlier
Veronica tightened her seat belt as the plane began its descent.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while we prepare to land."
Something felt wrong.
She remembered the two men disguised as mechanics before boarding.
The heavy shaking of the plane confirmed her suspicion.
She sprinted to the emergency exit, grabbed a parachute, and leapt into the sky.
BOOM!
The aircraft exploded behind her.
PRESENT
"Kevin, look over there," a young boy said, pointing at a colourful thing.
His older brother looked in that direction.
Kevin squinted his eyes while he walked towards it. He hit the parachute with his broadhead arrow.
"Excuse me. Are you ok?" he spoke in a foreign language.
Veronica groaned.
Human.
Her eyes sprang open when she heard a voice.
Human.
"Thank fuck, human." She removed the parachute from herself.
"Ahh, what's that, Kevin?" the young boy asked in a foreign voice.
Two boys stood in front of her. One in something like an animal skin wrapped around his lower body, and the youngest in a leaf bottom.
Veronica frowned.
Where was she?
She remembers boarding the plane to the UK. How come there's a foreign place like this?
She cleared her throat to speak. Shivers run down her spine.
Why was her throat sore?
Her hand wrapped around her throat to massage it.
"She can't speak, Kevin."
Veronica snapped her eyes at him.
How dare he curse her?
She can speak. She has a sore throat.
She opened her mouth again, and only a sound came out.
No!
This can't be. This is a sore throat.
Then why can't she talk?
Then it hit her.
The wine.
The wine she took, something was off about it.
FUCK!
She grasped her hair.
Can this day get any better?
"Argh", she tried again.
Fuck
She paced around the parachute, clutching her throat in frustration. The boys exchanged frightened glances before taking cautious steps back.
Veronica raised both hands, trying to tell them she meant no harm.
Nothing.
No words came out.
Desperate, she stumbled towards them, pointing to her throat.
Kevin's eyes widened.
"She's coming!"
Before she could stop, Kevin released the broadhead arrow.
Thwack!
The arrow buried itself deep in her stomach.
Veronica froze.
Pain exploded through her abdomen.
She looked down in disbelief.
"...You little shits."
Kevin grabbed his brother's wrist.
"Let's rush to the village, Mick," Kevin said, holding his brother's hand.
She could be the sea monster the eldest keeps talking about.
The eldest warned them about an ugly face that wore weird things, and the woman he saw was exactly that.
The brothers bolted into the forest without looking back.
Veronica stared after them, one hand wrapped around the arrow protruding from her stomach.
"First, my plane crashes." She winced. "Now I've been shot by children."
She let out a silent scream towards the sky.