**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 7
Evelyn's being restrained by Mason Kahn midway through the cabin, and while I hate leaving her to defend herself against a martial arts instructor twice her size, I have no choice. There are only minutes left until the plane nosedives.
I redirect my attention back to Heather. I run to the front of the plane, and try to grab the intercom from her. As I wrestle it out of her hands, the bathroom door opens and Jerry stands in the doorway.
He stares at me for a long moment. Surprise transforms his face. His expression seems to be saying, You again?
In that moment I realize Jerry definitely recognizes me. That night in Hawaii, when the three of them stared up at me from the motel courtyard, I stood like a deer in headlights. I heard them, and they knew I heard them. But I had no idea what they were talking about.
And I'm still not entirely sure what it all meant. But I know they had a plan for this flight, and now I'm living out how their plan went horribly wrong. Over and over again.
Am I just a death magnet?Does death follow me around, threatening me at every corner?
My mind is spinning, and then I remember what Evelyn said a few loops ago. That if I'm responsible for the loop growing longer, then she's responsible for the loop starting in the first place.
A chill runs through me. But what if she's right? What if we both are responsible, in some way? What if she unknowingly did something that caused this loop to start? And what if I did something that made these loops become more deadly?
My pulse is ragged, my throat constricting as I'm accosted by a new thought. The worst one of all.
What if I'm the reason we're all going to die?
The thought hovers, swirling in the white noise around me.
But no, I'm not going down this thought spiral, I tell myself. I learned a long time ago that what ifs didn't take me anywhere I wanted to go. And my time is too precious to waste.
Especially now.
I watch as Jerry cups his hand around his wrist again, just like last time. When he removes it a second later to grab the blade from his back pocket, I notice he's wearing a smart watch.
I steal a quick glance to the back of the plane where Janelle is now standing, her eyes momentarily resting on the front of the plane.
