In the airplane bathroom, sweating profusely, heart racing, he wondered how he’d ended up on this flight. He was trying to slow down his heart rate – but then, the lights went out. It must have been the lightning from the storm that had messed with the electrical, he thought. In the grim darkness, he braced himself on the small sink counter, and felt a spider skitter across his hand. He let out a scream. People were outside the door shouting. He didn’t want to face them; it was safer in this germ cesspool than out there with all those…people. But then the panic set in – what if he couldn’t get out of the bathroom? What if the door was jammed and he couldn’t escape? The plane suddenly tilted and the bathroom door flung open, revealing the chaos in the cabin. With every flicker of the lights, he noticed a new terrifying seen, like watching pictures through a viewfinder.

A woman crying that her dog had escaped from her hands and she didn’t know where it was…A child on the cabin floor bleeding, his father shouting for a doctor! …Someone identifying themselves as a dentist and kneeling down beside the child, opening her medical kit of anesthetic and needles. Oh, God. Still standing in the hallway to the bathroom, he clutched the wall and curtain and turned away to avoid witnessing the injection that was about to take place.

The plane twisted the other way and he was mortified when all of the baggage compartments flew open and a giant python that had been hidden away was now free falling towards him. No, this was much to much. The only option for him was to conquer his biggest fear of all. He took a gasp of air before pulling the hatch and then he jumped.

Written for Bloganuary prompt 15: What fear have you conquered?

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) | January 15, 2023 | slow