"Son, you don't look so good. Why don't you sit down and rest for a bit?"
They spoke over each other, casual and unhurried, their expressions open and guileless.
As if the applause, the cheering, the well-wishes for Amy and me had never happened.
But that was impossible.
Every moment was seared into my memory. The clapping. The smiles. Amy peeling a tangerine, the citrus scent still lingering on my fingers. I remembered it all, vivid and sharp, down to the smallest detail.
So how could a living, breathing person simply vanish at thirty thousand feet?
Why had every single person given the same story—that they'd never seen her?
Why had every photo on my phone vanished?
"Amy, where the hell are you?!"
I was teetering on the edge of a complete breakdown, screaming at the top of my lungs.
Melissa and the other flight attendants kept trying to talk me down.
"Sir, your behavior is seriously disturbing the other passengers. Please return to your seat immediately and remain calm."
I shook my head over and over. "No. My girlfriend is missing. I have to find her."
My relentless outburst forced the plane into an emergency landing at the nearest airport.
The moment the cabin door opened, several airport police officers boarded. Melissa rushed up to the one in front—a captain whose badge read Karl Gray—and pointed straight at me.
"This is the man. He boarded alone, but he insists his girlfriend vanished somewhere on the plane. He refused to listen to reason and has been causing a disturbance, disrupting every passenger on board."
I didn't want to end up in a psychiatric facility again, so I forced myself to stay as steady as I could.
"Officer, I haven't been causing trouble. I'm looking for my girlfriend. Her name is Amy Pruitt. She boarded this plane with me, and now she's gone."
"She has to still be on this aircraft. Please, I'm begging you—help me find her."
After my repeated pleas, Captain Gray finally agreed to search the plane.
They were thorough. They checked every inch. But in the end, there was no sign of Amy.
Gray studied me with a guarded expression, his voice low and even. "We've searched this aircraft inside and out. We've opened every passenger's luggage, checked every compartment. There is no girlfriend matching your description."
"A living, breathing person doesn't just vanish from a sealed airplane. Are you certain she boarded with you?"