The smell of burning metal was strong making him cough and sneeze from time to time, his left arm was something like asleep but it didn't hurt, that worried him even more, sometimes the pain is good.
Even with his mind a bit cloudy he try to focus on where he was and what had happened. The vestiges of memories came to him like flashes of a camera taking pictures automatically, only at a certain point that camera was left without a roll and the photographs were not taken.
He remembered being on a plane with his seven-year-old little brother, Peter. The memory that Peter was also in that plane froze him for a moment, he had to look for him, who knows what could have happened to him.
In the world were only Peter and he, nothing more, with their parents dead ironically for a airplane crash, he had to take care of Peter with only eighteen years, hardly the legal age enough to have custody. Peter was three years old when his parents died and he didn't remember them, he would have forgotten their faces If it were not for the pictures that his older brother showed him every birthday.
With somnolence he got up taking care of hurt himself with the destroyed metal parts, even with the smell of something burned he couldn't visualize a fire or something like that. He mentally scolded himself for insisting so much on a summer vacation trip, Peter had said he would rather go to the park, but he had saved money for so long and worked hard to make that trip a reality. Now the ride to the park didn't sound so bad, he would have learn to listen his brother.
As he moved through what was once an incredible plane, he noticed several of the passengers with some injuries helping each other and looking as disoriented as he felt. At least everyone seemed fine.
He went on his way trying to locate the seats where Peter and he were assigned, wondering why he was at the other end of the plane and not in his seat next to his brother. Maybe he got up to go to the bathroom, he just wanted to find his brother the rest he would clarify later.
As he approached his seat he turned to face him and a sigh of relief escaped him, there was Peter, safe, not a single scratch and with his big brown eyes watching his brother. A look of knowledge, one that he tried to ignore.
"Are you okay, Peter, did you hurt yourself anywhere?" Peter opened his eyes with surprise and a little terror in them, burying himself more in his seat as if he wanted to hide.
"Something wrong Peter?" - He was some worried about the behavior of his little brother. He tried to stroke his head with his good arm but Peter, noticing the action, closed his eyes tightly while denying frantically. The only thing that kept Peter from running was the series of knots that bound him to his seat.
Those knots seemed similar to him, it was not just the fastening of the safety belt, it was the manual mooring, the series of knots that he knew how to do perfectly.
Something told him that Peter knew something that other people on board didn't know, including him.
"Peter... I need you to tell me what happened" - His tone bordered on desperation, Peter just sank deeper into his seat, trying every moment to look away from him, avoiding him.
Several passengers were leaving the plane and even with Peter's refusal to touch him he untied the knots by removing the tie and carrying Peter on his right shoulder even when he kicked. Some time later Peter calmed down and when everyone was outside in what seemed like an open field he placed him on the ground still holding his hand tight in case of an escape attempt.
All the disoriented people talked to each other trying to put their memories in order without apparently succeeding in it. Then a news was announced causing surprise and terror in all present.
Not one of the aircrew was on the plane, no hostesses, no surveillance or pilots. They just weren't there. Everyone was affected by such revelation.
"You did it..." - The whisper was so low that only he could hear it. He knelt in front of his brother, grateful that the people around him were discussing hypotheses with each other.
"What do you mean Peter?, I didn't do anything" - He noticed the tremor in Peter and how he opened his mouth and didn't say anything as if he was afraid to say something wrong, something that would annoy him.
That revelation left him cold, Peter had never feared him, never had. They could always count on each other.
"You slept everyone on the plane and..." - That surprised him completely, seriously Peter believed he was responsible?.
"Peter, I never..." - His sentence was stopped by the look of security and anger in his little brother.
"You said that you would make sure we were with mom and dad, that we would go as they did" - There wasn't a trace of doubt in Peter's declaration, was there the possibility that what his brother said was real?.
A part of him, the reasonable denied it profoundly, but there was another part, one enclosed deep inside him, the one that shouted at him that he was capable of that and much more. Able to drug all the passengers of the airplane, capable of throwing the crew overboard all to live the same last seconds that their parents lived.
He turned his gaze to Peter and a fear seized him, the fear of being betrayed by Peter and being taken away from him for life.
"Will you tell someone?" The question sounded as fearful as it felt. Peter saw it with his big eyes, questioning in his mind what decision to make.
"I will not, it's just you and me against the world" - He could not help but shake his brother hard, he knew he could trust him. - "But I have a condition..."
"Whatever" - What Peter asked he would undoubtedly do.
"Don't do it again, and if you do it again ... don't fail" - That more than surprising him reassured him.
"I promise".
Peter was what kept him in control but at the same time he knew it would be his downfall.
Hello everyone uwu/ I hope you like my entry for the #twentyfourhourshortstory uwu/