Nikita

[FLASHBACK]

The television seems to be making a lot of noise, but I decide not to focus on that. There are other things that need my attention right now. Instead, my focus is on the images on the television.

The images of a familiar private jet.

It looks like the one I waved goodbye at, not three hours ago. I am unable to hear things clearly but I see shards of the plane everywhere.

Surely this cannot be my family right? But then my worst fears are coming true and I am helpless against them. Everyone around me seems to fade as my eyes zero in on the headlines.

"Pavlenko airplane crashes in the mountains hours after take-off" one headline reads, but I need better information. Something that might calm my wrecked nerves down. So I go through all the news channels on the television, but everything remains the same.

Everyone is talking about a crash. I tell myself this is Russia and there are several Pavleknos, but why does the plane number sound the same as my fmaily's jet?

"Nikolai Pavlenko and family presumed dead in a grizzly plane crash"

"the end of an era as the Nikolai Pavlenko family is reduced to ashes"

"Pavlenko plane crash takes all lives on board, flight manifest to be released soon"

I look for Angeline and find her standing beside me, wearing the same face as mine, trying to tell me it will be okay, but will it? Maybe this is just another plane that we own. It has to be right? I know I'm in serious denial, but this is not how I lose everything.

This is not how I make my entrance as the chief of surgery. Not with people who will look at me in pity, like some basket case.

Maybe this is another nightmare and I'm just in a zone where I'm trapped between my intuition and the reality of everything. Maybe this is just one of those days that doctor Nikita is tired and hallucinating, but when have I ever hallucinated?

Maybe this is a sick joke, I repeat for the hundredth time, but all the news channels and the internet are saying the same thing. If this is a prank, then it better be world fools day because otherwise, I might just change careers.

The world must surely hate me if this happens just a few days before I complete my project. Or maybe just maybe this is just some hallucination. I rush to my dad's study room and begin hacking on the airplane's BlackBox.

I know there's some information there.

I know there has to be because this is unacceptable.

With the program running, I make another call to Camille, hoping this time she will tell me that my parents are already there. And hopefully, I will get to hear killing like she always does. Maybe I will hear grandma scolding everyone in Russian and maybe I'll also hear Yuri complain about how the flight was.

The line rings, but it doesn't take long before someone picks up.

"Heyy Camille, are they there yet? The last time you said pops was out there" I ask her hoping she can clear the air for me even though I have a feeling she's going to slap me with the worst news yet.

"Oh dear, they called a while ago to give me the bad news. Your parents..I don't know how to tell you this. Everyone died in the crash. Your grandparents are there at the crash site. No one was saved yet. There are no bodies, no nothing Nikita. I'm scared." That hits me hard because it's pointless trying to find a reason right now.

My parents are dead.

My siblings are dead.

My best friend is dead. But the worst part of all this is that I am not dead with them.

I want to lash out at anything. I want to make it all disappear for good. I need it to all just, to all just go away, but I can't now, can I? So instead of just sitting here wallowing, I decide to break things. Maybe then I will feel better.

I trash the study room. Breaking everything breakable, because what's the point of all this if they're it coming back and they are not here. By the time I am done, the house looks like a deserted warehouse.

It looks like shit. But that's just how I feel at the moment.

I want to snap at anyone, anything. But who will be my first victim? I look around and there's nothing. Then I remember the hack I was performing on dad's computer.

When I find it, it's in shards.

Nothing about it makes any sense. It's dead, that and the fact that it's all broken and shit. The connections have been cut, and if this were another situation, I'd be proud of the damage I can do. But my pride will not do anything to help me right now. I need answers, answers that I can only get from the crash site.

Ignoring my project, I take my phone and leave. The helicopter is waiting for me and it shouldn't be long before I get there. Maybe then I will get real answers. As the chopper leaves, I notice the media vans by the gate.

Everyone is curious about what's going on in this house and what just happened. But even I am curious.. I radio the guards not to let anyone in the estate because if they do, they can consider themselves fired.