The Great Escape
Standing in the middle of the room, full of dread that everything was just a sick joke, but Ting won't appear tonight if this is just a stupid prank. Ting must have made a mistake then, or did he? She is sure that this is the correct room, and even if she wants to confirm things again with Ting, she has no way to contact him. She doesn't even know where he went. She could feel herself panicking with all of those thoughts in her head. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, counting to ten, to clear her mind.
She could still feel her eyes twitching in nervousness, but she's able to keep herself focused enough to take another look around the room,- a bed, a coffee table under the window, an open bathroom door on the left, next to a wall with a blinking panel. A blinking panel!
She scurries to the blinking panel like it's an oasis, and with trembling hands, she pressed the card on it. She jumps when the wall opens with a soft swoosh to a clearly elevator room. She didn't think twice and swiftly stepped inside, holding her breath as the metal wall enclosed her and she felt the gravity pulling down the small room.
Before she could think of what will happen if the door won't open and if it does, on what floor it will actually take her, and before Ellise could drive herself to another panic attack, the shiny metal door opens, and a black sedan with a back door open is waiting right in front of it. Ellise let out herself and the breath she doesn't know she's holding in her chest. She then threw herself inside the car, and was welcome with Ting's grinning face, asking "Was it fun?"
---
Now, sitting on this luxurious leather seat of this private plane, currently airborne to an unknown destination, she's doubtful if she could ever narrate what happened with her eighteenth birthday party if someone asked her about it.
Except for the hazy image of herself in a white gown gliding down a grandiose staircase and the whir of the sedan flying away from the city to an undisclosed property with a plane on stand by, she doesn't seem to remember anything. It must be the adrenaline of this escapade that was like a scene out of a movie. Added the fact that she still doesn't know where they are going, Ting is sitting like a sleeping statue two seats apart from her, refusing to give her an explanation.
A bleak clump of clouds floating in the night sky is what the window offers when she peers outside. Gazing at it, Ellise surprisingly forgot all her worries, and finally caved into drowsiness caused by fatigue and weaning adrenaline.
However, she woke up abruptly as her body is well accustomed to the violent thud of a plane landing gear when it hits the runway. They have arrived, or so she thought.
"This car will bring you to another private plane that will take you to your final destination, where you wait for your aunt Joy," Ting said, opening the passenger door of the black Montero, parked in the dark corner of the tarmac. When Ellise got in the car, she saw that there was a man quietly sitting in front of the steering wheel. Her brain foggy of sleep, can only mumble the question, "Aren't you coming?"
"I still have something else to do. I'll see you soon, and I hope it is in China." Ting answered her with a gentle smile, closing the door, and the car charged to another unknown location. Ellise is observing the city view, slowly changes to an unusual suburban area as the car speeds up to another waiting plane.
"Are we in Asia?" she hears herself asking the question inside the quiet car.
"We are entering Subic, ma'am" a smiling man in the rearview mirror answered her.
"Where are we going?" she asked again because she doesn't have an idea where Subic is.
"Amanpulo, ma'am." the driver answered with such an open friendliness. "It is a very beautiful island, ma'am."
The friendliness of the man eases her nervousness and decides to ask more questions since it looks like this man has no standing order to keep her in the dark of where she is going.
She asked bravely, "Where are we exactly?", was answered with a confused questioning expression by her driver. "I mean, wha-what country?" she stammered in nervousness.
"Philippines, ma'am.", confusion is still evident in the driver's voice, but it seems like he finally understands that his passenger is not the usual tourist he fetches. "We are near the airport, ma'am. You can ask the people there if you have more questions.", he said in a tone drawing a clear line of someone who does not want to be involved, and just wants to do the given job.
The driver didn't utter any more words and evaded her eyes in the rearview mirror, for the rest of the trip. He only speaks to her when they enter another private looking hangar, with an eight-seater Cessna waiting for her.
"We are here, ma'am. Thank you for patronizing our service, hope to see you again soon."
Ellise was bitterly disappointed with the scripted speech of the driver, that she didn't engage with the hospitable crew of the Cessna. The crew of the small plane confirmed what the driver said; her destination is the beautiful island of Amanpulo.
Right after the plane took off, Ellise was presented with a beautiful ocean view from the air, yet Ellise was rendered speechless with the amazing island that came into sight after an almost an hour flight. Beautiful is an understatement to describe this island, and she's been to a lot of beautiful islands before. Her grandparents even own an island somewhere in the Caribbean.
Nothing could ever prepare Ellise for this incredible sight, more so with the four members' family, that welcomed her enthusiastically.