Chapter Text
Sasha has decided she hates airports.
There are too many people and not enough signs telling you where to go. It doesn’t help that the last time she was in this airport she was 5. She’s trying to read the signs with her father’s flight information before it blinks away while simultaneously avoiding being jostled by the ever-moving crowd.
The poster board is secured in her strong grasp and she holds it close to her body in fear of losing it. Her father’s flight was due to arrive at 6:40pm. She’s never met him at the airport before after one of his business trips but she decided to surprise him as today is his birthday. She even drew up a poster board that said “Happy Birthday Dad!” in various colors.
Finally arriving at the correct gate, she took root in front and rolled out the poster board, growing more giddy by the minute. She was just in time as she watched the plane drive into the gate and park. After a few minutes she watched as people disembarked, carting their luggage behind them and narrowly avoiding bumping into her. She admits she was annoyingly close to the gate and people had to swerve around her to avoid her but she wanted to make sure her father saw the sign.
After a few minutes of waiting, the long line of passengers eventually ended. Sasha still stood there, determined, and waited. The flight attendants and pilots eventually disembarked as well, and Sasha watched as the flight crew began closing up the gate.
Her father never got off the plane. How could that be? She frantically looked around her, wondering if she somehow missed him but couldn’t spot him in the crowds. She pulled out her phone and re-read the text he sent her with his arrival time, one that she had skillfully extracted from him under the ruse that she wanted to know if he’d be home in time for dinner so she could save him a plate. Unless he texted the wrong time, she was exactly where she was supposed to be, when she was supposed to be.
Even more confused, she moved to sit down in an empty chair and searched the airport’s website for flights arriving from Urzikstan, where she knew her father spent the last few days. The only plane coming from Urzikstan today was the one that she just watched de-board. There wasn’t another arriving flight until two days from now.
She wondered if her father got caught up in business and forgot to tell her. Sighing, she was about to send him a text when the sound of someone clearing their throat drew her attention up.
Two men in casual clothing stood in front of her, looking down with an expression she could not decipher. One of them said, “Excuse me, are you Sasha Turner?”
“Um, yes?” she answered, sitting up straighter and tucking her phone away. These men looked middle eastern – maybe they worked on the plane her father took?
“Your father is Alex Turner,” the man said, not quite a question.
“Yes,” she responded again, growing excited. Did her father send these men to explain his absence? It wouldn’t be the first time Sasha dealt with the people who worked for her father.
“Your father sent us to collect you. Please come with me.”
Sasha got to her feet, tucked her phone in her back pocket and began following the two men through the airport. The one who spoke to her took position in front to lead, looking back occasionally while the other man followed behind her. Her mind distracted her with scenarios explaining her father’s absence, so it took her a few minutes to realize what was wrong. When she did, she stopped in her tracks in shock.
Her father didn’t send these men. He didn’t know she would be here.
“Move,” the one behind her said. He placed his palm against her back and gave a slight push, but she regained her footing quickly and refused to move further. He called out in his native language to the man in front of her, causing him to turn around and glare at her. All at once, she made her decision.
Sasha threw her rolled-up poster at the man in front of her and took off running to the left. She didn’t dare look behind her to see if the men began pursuing her but figured they wouldn’t want to risk the attention they would surely garner chasing a girl through the airport. A quick, risky glance behind her confirmed her beliefs. The two men didn’t move a muscle but instead glared at her with a look of pure hatred. It made goosebumps trail across her skin.
Fighting back a shiver, she quickly ran through the doors to the carpark and hailed a taxi.
__________________________________________
Once the taxi parked outside of her apartment building she wasted no time slapping a wad of cash into the driver’s hand and charging up the stairs to her third story flat.
She was so deep in her own thoughts that she almost ran into Simon, her neighbor right across from her. He carried a large duffel bag on his back, absolutely stuffed to the brim with whatever he shucked back and forth on his deployments. Despite being a warm May day he wore jeans, a long sleeved T-shirt and, of course, his signature black balaclava she never saw him without outside.
The sound of her stomping up the stairs alerted him to her presence and he turned. His eyebrows narrowed, surely in observance of her frazzled appearance, and he gave her a quick look up and down. “Are you alright?” he asked.
She nodded, out of breath. “Yeah,” she gasped. Taking another breath, she tried again: “Yeah, thanks.” She quickly opened the door to her apartment and slipped inside, locking it shut behind her. If Simon thought that was weird, he certainly didn’t stick around to say anything as she heard the sound of his door open and close as well.
Sasha quickly walked to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water and downed it. She stood panting at the counter, trying to collect her breath and her thoughts when an idea struck her. “Dad?” she called out. She left her glass on the table and walked to his room, knocking on the door. “Dad?”
He had told her that his door was to be kept shut at all times but, upon hearing no response, she turned the knob and threw it open, nervous to step inside. “Dad?” she called from the doorway, but there was still no response, and no one in the room. She closed the door.
Pulling out her phone, she spent the next several minutes dialing her father on repeat, begging him to answer. As the phone was ringing, she sent several texts as well.
After a few failed attempts, she went on the airline’s website and dialed their customer service number. Pacing her living room, she waited in anticipation until she was connected to a live representative and she quickly explained her situation, asking if they could tell her if her father was on the flight.
Her heart sank when the woman on the line responded with, “I’m sorry, miss, but I can’t give out this information.”
“Please,” she begged. “My dad said he was gonna be on that flight and he’s not answering the phone. I’m really worried.” The woman on the other end of the line sighed. Before she could speak her rehearsed lines regarding privacy concerns Sasha was expecting to hear, Sasha pled, “Please, ma’am. It’s his birthday today. I’m just really worried.” Then, in more of a whisper, “He’s all I have left.”
The next few moments of silence were tense as Sasha hoped her plea would work. Finally, the representative said, “Technically, I’m not allowed to say whether or not a passenger was on board a flight. However, after entering your father’s information in our system, I can see that his ticket has not been used for the flight out of Meska, Urzikstan.”
Sasha stopped pacing. “So he wasn’t on board.”
“Technically,” the woman emphasized, “if his ticket was not used, then no, he did not board the flight.”
Sasha let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding, thanked the woman and hung up.
So he didn’t board the flight. Was it possible he was still in Meska? Is that where he was staying?
Sasha moved to sit down on the couch, willing herself to focus. Googling Meska, she found the nearby hotels and began calling all of the ones she thought her father would stay at. It took nearly an hour before she finally got a positive response.
“Alex Turner?” the man from the hotel asked. “You must pay.”
Sasha stopped worrying her hair through her fingers and paused, confused. “What?”
“You must pay for damages,” the man repeated. “You left your things. Your room was a mess!”
Sasha sat up. “He’s still there?”
“You must come back to pay or I will call the police!”
Sasha pulled the phone away from her ear as the man continued to yell. Heart racing, she hung up the phone and tossed it across the couch. It rang a few more times as the man from the hotel tried calling back, giving up after a few tries and leaving a voicemail instead.
With her eyes closed, she rubbed her hands over her face and willed herself to calm down. She grew more confused the more she learned. So he never boarded his flight home and he left his things in his hotel room? And his hotel room was damaged? Her father was a very neat, respectable man. He would never trash his hotel room. Could that mean he was attacked?
She wished she had someone she could call for help or, at the very least, knew where her father worked and could call them for help to fix this. What if he was in danger? What if he was hurt?
She picked up her phone and dialed her father again. Her heart dropped as an automated voice message played, informing her that his number has been disconnected. Frantically, she sent a text only to get an error message back.
Standing, she made her way over to the kitchen again to pour herself another glass of water. Her throat tended to become very dry when she was anxious. As she lifted the glass to her lips to drink, she looked out the small window in her kitchen which overlooked the landing to her flat. Across the way, she saw Simon’s silhouette move across his kitchen through his closed curtain.
She put her glass down and checked her phone. It was a little past midnight. What was he still doing up? Her fingers drummed against her phone as she debated asking him for help. They’ve only interacted a few times over the years but he’s always been friendly and kind. Plus, he was military. And an adult. Maybe he could help?
Exhaling, she finished off the rest of her water and put her glass in the sink. Grabbing her phone, she left her apartment, crossed the landing in 3 steps and knocked on his door.