When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I was supposed to bring my girlfriend home to meet my parents.
——
"Ernest Fox, what are you spacing out for? It's boarding time. Come on, let's go."
Amy Pruitt waved two boarding passes in the air, smiling at me.
Looking at that warm, gentle smile, a violent shudder ripped through my body.
I'd been reborn.
I was twenty-seven. Amy and I had been together for three full years. I'd decided to use the holiday trip to bring her home and introduce her to my parents.
I never could have imagined that this one decision would make her vanish without a trace and cost me my life.
Going over everything that had happened in my previous life, I still couldn't make sense of any of it.
I couldn't understand how Amy, a living, breathing person, could simply disappear mid-flight.
I couldn't understand why the flight attendants and passengers, who had watched us board together with their own eyes, all insisted in unison that they'd never seen Amy.
I couldn't understand why my parents, who had always doted on me, who knew full well I'd been dating Amy for three years, told the police I'd never had a girlfriend.
"Ernest, you look terrible. Are you feeling okay?"