**WATTYS 2022 WINNER** Seventeen-year-old Evelyn Werth is on an endless flight from hell. She's the only person onboard Aloha Airways Flight 1333 who's caught in a 28-minute time loop.
During each cycle, four things happen:
1. The Internet goes out...
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Still Loop 398
This is what Heather saw.
I know virtually nothing about drugs, but I have an innate feeling that's what this must be. There's nothing else it could be. And everything inside me screams that this powdery stuff and the way it's packaged individually in small amounts, is hugely illegal.
Someone on this plane is smuggling drugs.
But how could illegal drugs have gotten through security and onto the plane in the first place?
I don't know the answer, so I decide to put a pin in that thought and move on to what I do know. And what I know is that right after Heather saw this probably illegally smuggled substance, she beelined straight to the front of the plane and stood in the front corner, adjacent to the cockpit.
I startle as I remember her standing there at the start of the flight, talking about how everyone needed to properly stow their carryon bags and get seated for takeoff.
The intercom. Of course, that's what's in the front corner.
I'm trying to jump down from the armrest but a now enraged Jack Greene grabs my ankle even harder. He's so strong I can't kick him loose. I'm stuck.
I feel the gentle dip of the plane – one that, thanks to Rion's discovery, I now recognize as the plane changing direction.
Meanwhile Lydia's trying to diffuse the situation, and she's so exasperated that red wisps of hair fall out of her meticulously tight updo. "Miss, I need you to get down from there!" she yells at me. And then to Jack Greene, "Sir, sir! Let go of her! And sit down!"
But it's not working. For either of us. I can't get down, and he won't let go.
Then I hear Rion call me. "Evelynnn...." It's a strangled, miserable rendition of my name.
I glance at the front of the cabin and spot Rion facing the bathroom door, in what appears to be a state of shock. He's frozen to the spot.
I try kicking myself loose of Jack's grip as Rion says my name again. He doesn't say it loudly, but I can hear from the tone in his voice that something isn't right.
Dread calcifies in my bones. No.Something is very, very wrong.
I'm running short on time, and need to get Jack off of me. Fear rattles through my body as I reach up, grab a smaller beach bag from the overhead bin, and pull it down. Gripping the canvas handle firmly in my hand, I swing the woven handbag around like I'm throwing a javelin, clocking Jack Greene directly in the face. He yelps, releasing his grip and I twist my ankle out of his hand. I half-jump, half-fall into the aisle as other passengers get up, and begin closing in on me.
