Page 1 of Forever Bound

Chapter 1: Otherwise known as that time I made the wrong life choice and ended up a human sacrifice

Why amI tied to a tree in the middle of a freezing Ukrainian forest waiting for a god to come devour me?

Funny story.

Let me start at the beginning. I'm Evangeline Love. Yes, I know, it's the corniest name in the history of names, but it's mine and I love it…pun always intended. My friends just call me Angel. Or Love. Depends on how long we've been friends.

This is my last year of grad school. I'm nearly done with my thesis and will soon be a practicing Marriage and Family Therapist in the Greater Los Angeles area.

All my dreams are about to come true.

So how did I wind up in my current predicament, so far from the concrete jungle of Los Angeles, where my biggest problem was rush hour traffic?

Because I made the wrong life choice a few months ago when I agreed to join my Ukrainian roommate for a trip to her homeland for the holidays. She and I have been through a lot together since the night we met as freshmen, equal measures scared and excited, but I've never seen where she's from, and this seemed like a good time. I have no family and no significant other with claims to my Christmas, so this was a welcome invite, and I've been anticipating this trip with excitement for months. I was packed before Thanksgiving.

In the understatement of the year, I didn't anticipate the fate that has befallen me.

Yana and I left LAX at two in the morning for an exhausting sixteen-hour flight with one layover.

We were at the tail end of our journey and both asleep when the plane began to jerk in the sky in ways you really don't want the shit ton of steel you're flying through the air in to do.

The voice of the pilot came on to warn us that we were experiencing turbulence.

No shit.

We were over Ukraine at the time. So close to our final destination.

Yana woke, her seafoam-colored eyes wide with alarm.

I reached for her hand as the emergency air bags dropped from above us, and a flight attendant gave instructions in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. I couldn't hear her though.

Because the plane was dropping from the sky at an alarming rate.

We were going to crash. I knew it in my bones.

Yana and I both closed our eyes and gripped each other with everything in us as the air pressure in the cabin changed and the plane began to tailspin mid-air.

The rest comes to me in flashes.

Screaming.

Blood.

Hanging upside down from the seat belt.

Purses and laptops flying through the cabin.

More screaming.

A child crying.

The same child tragically going silent.

A parent sobbing.

Panic flooding me.

I couldn't think past the shock of falling from the sky.

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