“Ethan Mercer, did you miss me?”

A pretty girl in a sleepdress was draped over me, all soft curves and half-hidden skin, her voice sweet enough to mess with a man’s head.

My mind was foggy. One arm was around that slim little waist I could almost circle with one hand. I stared at her, dazed, and blurted, “Who... are you?”

She lifted the lace of her nightgown just a little. On her shoulder blade was a small red mole, vivid in the dim light.

“Well?” she said, smiling at me. “Remember now?”

My heart instantly started acting up. At that point, honestly, who even cared who she was?

Then—

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A brutal series of kicks slammed into the door outside.

I shot upright and yelled, “Who is it?”

“Hijacking! Hijacking! Open up now, or I’m firing!” someone shouted from outside.

My mood got wrecked on the spot. I cursed inwardly, annoyed out of my mind. Yeah? Then shoot, if you’ve got the guts.

Bang... bang... bang...

Several bullets came straight at me.

My whole body jerked hard, and I snapped awake from the dream. Only then did I remember—I was on a plane, flying back home.

Right in front of the cockpit, a bald man was waving a handgun around, screaming himself hoarse at the cockpit door.

That was when it hit me.

Our plane had been hijacked.

Bang!

The bald man fired another shot at the cockpit.

The next second, the aircraft dropped so suddenly it felt like an elevator cable had snapped. My stomach lurched. My heart clenched.

Panic surged through me, sharp and cold.

Then everything went black.

I had no idea how much time passed before consciousness slowly crawled back. My head felt heavy, like it had been stuffed with wet cotton. I struggled to undo my seatbelt and tried to stand, only to realize my body was stuck in a half-reclining position.

Outside the window, the moonlight spilled down like water.

By that pale glow, I could see the nose of the plane jammed against a huge tree, tilted upward at an angle.

I grabbed the seatback in front of me and forced myself to stand. The cabin reeked of blood so strongly it nearly made me gag, but I clenched my teeth and endured it.

“Is anyone there?” I shouted.

No answer.

Not a single voice came back.

A chill crept up my spine.

I took out my phone, switched on the flashlight, and carefully searched everything I could see within the beam.

In one corner of the cabin, a whole bunch of people were crushed together in a heap. I walked over and checked them one by one, but every single one of them had already lost their heartbeat.

Then, out of nowhere, a faint voice drifted up from behind me.

I spun around.

A girl was lying sprawled across several bodies, covered in blood from head to toe.

In that dim, shaky light, my heart jolted.

Wasn’t that Natalie Voss?

The goddess I’d had a crush on forever. The new-generation movie queen.

Why was she on this plane too?

“Natalie… Miss Voss.” I carefully patted her face, hoping to wake her up.

No response.

She didn’t move at all, her eyes shut tight.

Panic started clawing at me. I bent down and gave her mouth-to-mouth. Her lips were soft, exactly the kind I liked—yeah, sure, my brain flashed some messy thoughts, but this was no time for that.

I blew in a few hard breaths, but she still showed no sign of waking.

Left with no choice, I unfastened two buttons on her top, getting ready to do chest compressions.

The moment the buttons came loose, my own heartbeat went crazy.

I’d been staring at her through a screen for who knew how long, and now I was seeing the real thing up close.

My eyes betrayed me and lingered for two quick seconds on the view in front of me. Then I forcefully shoved those thoughts aside and steadied myself, trying to act like some old monk in meditation as I started treating her properly.

Not long after, Natalie finally let out a weak groan and slowly opened her eyes.

Her mind clearly hadn’t caught up yet. The second she saw a man pressing and touching around on top of her, she shrieked and swung her hand.

Smack.

Her slap landed square on my face.

I froze for a second. “What are you doing?”

She shot upright, only to realize her clothes were open, her skin exposed, and her whole body smeared with blood. Terror exploded across her face, and she started screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Help! Help!”

I grabbed her shoulders and held her still. “Stop yelling. I’m the one who saved you.”

“Who are you?” she demanded, glaring at me with those huge, beautiful eyes.

“My name is Ethan Mercer.”

She looked around at the wrecked cabin, and little by little, the daze in her eyes faded. Then she asked, voice trembling, “Is… is anyone else alive?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “You were the first one I tried to save.”

Natalie Voss looked a little moved. “Thanks. Go check on the others.”

I scanned the wreckage around us, eyes darting through first class. Then I spotted a girl still breathing.

My heart jumped. I shouted at Natalie, “Quick, come here! There’s another one alive!”

Natalie struggled over, practically dragging herself through the mess. She knelt beside the girl and awkwardly pressed a few times on her chest. “Wake up. Hey, wake up.”

After a short while, the girl finally opened her eyes.

But something was off.

Her gaze was unfocused, kind of blank, like the crash had rattled her brain hard. She looked dazed, almost silly in that stunned, empty way people get after a bad hit.

I crouched beside her and asked, “Can you hear me?”

The girl gave a faint nod.

I held up one finger. “What number is this?”

“Two.”

I turned and exchanged a look with Natalie.

Natalie frowned, then leaned closer and asked gently, “What’s your name?”

The girl stared at her for a long moment, face full of confusion. Then she slowly shook her head.

I let out a breath. “She probably has a concussion. Looks like some memory loss too.”

Natalie’s expression tightened. “Then what do we do?”

“It should be okay,” I said. “Give it a few days, and she’ll probably recover.”

Natalie looked at me suspiciously. “You sound pretty sure. Are you a doctor?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But my dad’s the village doctor.”

As I said that, I reached toward the girl to check her body.

Natalie grabbed my arm at once. “What are you doing?”

“I need to make sure she doesn’t have any broken bones,” I said seriously. “If we move her without checking, that could make things worse.”

Natalie stared into my eyes for a few seconds, like she was trying to decide if I was being legit or pulling something shady. At last, she let go.

“Fine.”

I carefully felt along the girl’s body, checking her limbs and joints one by one. After making sure there were no obvious fractures, I looked at her and repeated slowly, making sure she understood:

“In a minute, you need to walk by yourself and slide down from here with us. Got it?”

The girl nodded blankly, showing she understood.

The floor was slick with blood, like some nightmare version of a park slide.

I didn’t let myself slip. I grabbed the backs of the seats first and made my way down step by step. I had to make sure the path out was safe for us.

Every time I passed a row, I reached out and checked the people lying there.

Not one of them responded.

…

When I finally got out of the cabin, the sky above was packed with stars.

The wreckage had come to rest on a beach by the sea. The fuselage had snapped from the front of the wing section, and everything behind the wings was just… gone.

After the nose slammed onto the beach, it had carved a deep trench through the sand. Under the moonlight, I could see bodies scattered inside it, lying in twisted heaps. Dead or alive, I couldn’t tell.

I raised my voice and shouted, “Slide down!”

The two of them came down one after the other.

Natalie Voss had already been scared out of her mind, but the second she saw the scene in front of her, she broke down completely and started sobbing.

“Don’t cry. Save people first!” I shouted and ran toward the trench.

The sight inside was brutal.

Some people didn’t even have all their limbs anymore.

I checked several of them in a row, turning them over one by one, but there was no sign of life.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard someone call out, “There’s one alive here!”

I turned toward the voice and saw that silly-looking girl about ten meters away, pressing hard on someone’s chest.

I rushed over and looked down.

The man on the ground was the bald hijacker.

Natalie Voss ran over too. The moment she recognized him, her face changed. She immediately tried to stop the girl.

“He’s a hijacker. Don’t save him!”

But the girl acted like she hadn’t heard a word. She kept doing chest compressions with all her strength, stubborn and focused.

“Don’t save him!” Natalie Voss snapped. In a rush of emotion, she shoved the girl aside. “Everyone here died because of him!”

The girl was unbelievably stubborn. She didn’t listen at all and moved forward again to keep trying to save him.

Natalie Voss panicked. She shoved the foolish girl hard, knocking her straight onto the beach. “Are you insane?”

Seeing the dazed, blank look on the girl’s face, I couldn’t quite bear it and tried to calm things down. “Come on, this is really not the time. Everybody chill.”

Natalie’s face was flushed bright red, her voice sharp with fear. “This isn’t me overreacting. Have you even thought about it? A man who dares to hijack a plane—what kind of thing do you think he’d do in a place like this?”

She spoke so fast the words nearly crashed into each other. Her chest rose and fell violently. The collar of her clothes hung wide open, stiff with dried blood.

I glanced over instinctively, then forced my eyes away and nodded. “She’s right. He’s dangerous. We absolutely can’t save him.”

The second the words left my mouth, I saw the bald man’s body twitch.

I cut my eyes toward him—

And my scalp tightened.

He was already awake, lying there with his eyes open, staring up at us. There was something cold and vicious in that gaze, like a snake sliding through shadow.

A chill ran down my spine.

I knew it.

He had heard every single word.