The line went silent for several seconds as Louis weighed his options.

Cabin depressurization. A shattered window.

Even with an emergency descent, every second wasted meant greater danger. He couldn’t afford to gamble.

“What are your terms?” His voice gritted out from between clenched teeth.

I watched the clouds whip past the window and spoke clearly, each word deliberate. “First, you, Louis, will immediately announce over the PA—to every passenger and the control tower—that due to your negligent supervision and mismanagement of personal relationships, crew member Ashley committed a critical safety violation. Then, you will voluntarily ground yourself and submit to investigation.”

“You’re out of your mind!” Louis exploded. “Stephanie, don’t push your luck.”

“I have a second condition,” I continued, ignoring his rage completely. “Make Ashley kneel in the aisle and bow in apology to every single passenger until this plane lands.”

The moment the words left my mouth, not just Louis—the entire cabin seemed to draw a sharp, collective breath.

Ashley shrieked like a cat with its tail stepped on. “You bitch! Who do you think you are! Louis would never agree to that!”

Her eyes darted desperately toward the PA speaker, as though Louis might materialize from it to protect her.

Louis’s voice crackled through again, thick with threat. “Stephanie, this is my final warning. Don’t test me. Remember, you’re on this plane too. If it goes down, you die with the rest of us.”

Using everyone’s lives to threaten me?

How familiar.

In my past life, he’d done the same—using over a hundred lives to force my hand, to make me forgive Ashley.

Too bad for him. I wasn’t that soft-hearted Stephanie anymore.

“Oh? Is that so?” I let out a scornful laugh. “Then let’s all die together. At least on the road to the underworld, I’ll have a decorated captain and his precious ‘momentary lapse’ to keep me company.”

I hung up again, pulled off my oxygen mask, leaned back in my seat, and closed my eyes.

A posture of pure, unbothered resignation: *Your move. I’ll wait.*

Time ticked by.

The cabin air grew thinner. The high-pitched shriek from the breach sharpened—a siren song from the reaper himself.

Passengers grew restless. Some began to cry; others scribbled what looked like final notes.

The fear of death settled over everyone equally.

Donna, the chief flight attendant, was sweating bullets. She directed the crew to stuff pillows and blankets against the hole, but the intense pressure differential sucked them straight out.

“It’s useless!” shouted a middle-aged man who looked experienced. “The pressure differential is too great! If we don’t seal that breach, this plane is going down!”

All eyes turned to me once more.

This time, their gazes held no accusation—only fear and desperate pleading.

Donna rushed to my side, her tone bordering on begging. “Stephanie, I’m begging you! The passengers are innocent! You can’t just sit there and watch everyone die!”

I opened my eyes and gave her a flat look.

Innocent?

In my past life, when Louis and Ashley teamed up to smear me—claiming I’d called the police out of petty jealousy over Ashley—how many of these “innocent” passengers had stepped forward to call me vicious and heartless?

Now they were scared?

“My terms,” I said, unmoved, “are exactly what I just stated.”

Just then, a young mother clutching her child—his face purpling from lack of oxygen—collapsed to her knees before me.

“Please! Save my baby! He’s so little!” Her sobs were raw, gut-wrenching.

I looked at the child, and my heart gave an inevitable, painful twist.

In my past life, I’d had a child too.

Louis’s.

But after a long-haul flight, exhausted, I lost it.

Louis had held me and said, *It’s okay. I’m enough.*

Now, looking back, maybe he was relieved.

Relieved that losing the child cleared the path for Ashley’s arrival.

My heart hardened to stone once more.

Looking down at the kneeling mother, I spoke slowly. “Let him beg Captain Louis. *He’s* the one who values his pride—and Ashley’s—over all your lives.”

My words were the match that lit the fuse.

The passengers’ pent-up fear and fury ignited.

"That's right! Find the Captain!"

"Why should the rest of us die for the two of them?"

"Make them agree! Now!"

The cabin erupted.

Louis had heard the commotion perfectly well.

After a long silence, the intercom crackled back to life, his voice thick with humiliation and resentment. "Alright... Stephanie, I agree."

He paused, took a deep, audible breath, and addressed the whole plane in a flat, emptied tone. "Attention, this is Captain Louis. The current emergency resulted from a serious error by crew member Ashley, stemming from my personal failure in supervision. I accept full responsibility and will voluntarily ground myself pending investigation."

The cabin exploded into uproar.

Every gaze, sharp with contempt and fury, swung toward Ashley, still crumpled on the floor.

All the color drained from her face.

She couldn’t believe it. Her Louis—the man who had always coddled her—had just thrown her to the wolves to save his own skin.

"No... that’s not…" she whispered, eyes vacant.

I stood and walked over, looking down. "Your turn for the second condition."

Ashley looked up, tears welling, her gaze pure venom.

Forced to kneel and kowtow? It was worse than death.

"Stephanie! Don’t push me too far!" she shrieked.

"You still don’t get it, do you?" I sneered, crouching until my lips were at her ear, my voice a whisper for her alone. "You think Louis caved to save everyone? Wrong. He did it to save himself. If this plane goes down, the captain is the first to take the blame. And do you really think a man who just admitted to gross mismanagement in front of everyone gives a damn about you now?"

Her body began to tremble violently.

I’d struck right at the nerve of her deepest fear.

"Keep stalling," I added, my voice a low, deliberate murmur, like the whisper of a devil. "And soon, not even Louis—not even a god—will be able to save you. And then? All these lives? They’ll be on your head."

Survival instinct finally crushed her pathetic pride.

Clenching her teeth, her whole body shaking, Ashley slowly sank to her knees.

She lifted her head, looked at the ring of furious faces around her, and with utter humiliation, slammed her forehead against the cold floor.

"I’m… I’m sorry…"

With each kowtow, she muttered the apology.

The passengers’ rage seemed to cool a fraction with every muffled thud.

I didn’t spare her another glance, turning instead toward the breached window.

"Donna! Bring all the bandages and tape from the first-aid kits! And every pillow, blanket, and cushion on this plane!" I commanded, voice firm. "Find me some strong male passengers to help!"

In that moment, I was Stephanie again—the cool, professional Chief Stewardess from my past life.

Donna and the other flight attendants sprang into action.

Supplies quickly gathered at my feet.

Assessing the hole: small, but the cracks around its edges were spiderwebbing outward.

"We need a hard brace first, then soft material to pack it, then layer upon layer of tape to seal it!" I instructed the men who’d stepped forward.

Shrugging off my jacket, I wrapped a metal meal tray tightly in a blanket and pressed it against the breach.

A massive suction force instantly tried to rip it—and me—right out into the void.

"Now! Hold me!" I yelled.

Two men lunged forward, one wrapping his arms around my waist, the other bracing against my back.

"Tear the pillows and blankets into strips! Stuff every gap!" I kept directing.

Everyone scrambled to pack the hole.

Then, in that critical moment, another scream pierced the air.

"Ah!"

I glanced back. Ashley, who had just finished her kowtows, had somehow gotten to her feet. Staggering toward us—probably trying to "help" and salvage some face—her foot caught, and she stumbled, falling directly toward me.

"Look out!"

Donna gasped.

Pinned from behind, I had no room to dodge.

Ashley slammed into my back with the full force of her weight, sending me stumbling forward. The meal tray in my hands flew loose, snatched by the violent airflow and whipped out through the broken window.

*Rip!*

Without support, the crack around that small hole abruptly expanded—the tear widening into a vicious circle.

The wind’s sharp whistle became a deafening roar.

Everything in the cabin was violently sucked toward the breach. Even the passengers felt themselves dragged toward it.

"Ashley! What are you doing?" Donna rushed over and slapped her across the face, furious.

"I… I didn’t mean to… I was only trying to help…" Ashley covered her cheek, tears streaming down in a pitiful display.

Help?

I looked at her, my eyes cold.

The angle of her fall, the force of her lunge—it was all too convenient.

She had done it on purpose.

She hated me for making her kneel, for humiliating her. In the chaos, she had seized her chance to retaliate, to try and get me sucked out of the plane.

Hopelessly stupid. Irredeemably malicious.

"Everyone, stay calm!" I roared over the panic. "Unbuckle a few seatbelts—now!"

Several passengers snapped into action, unfastening their belts and passing them to me.

I knotted several together tightly and handed one end to the men. "Hold this tight! Don’t let go, even if I die!"

Without a glance at the weeping Ashley, I gathered an armful of pillows and blankets, clutched them to my chest, and charged again toward the now-significantly-larger breach.

This time, I used my own body, along with the padding in my arms, to plug the hole.

The gale slashed against my back like countless knives.

Powerful suction pulled at me, threatening to tear my insides apart.

"Quick! Duct tape! Tape me and all this stuff to the fuselage!" I shouted with everything I had left.

Donna and the other flight attendants grabbed rolls of tape and frantically wrapped them around me and the padding.

One layer, two, three…

They wrapped me up like a mummy, layering me and the bedding over and over against that gaping hole.

Gradually, the howling wind subsided.

The cabin pressure finally stabilized, at least for now.

Everyone slumped in relief, collapsing into their seats, breathing heavily.

I felt like my bones were coming apart. My back burned with a raw, searing pain.

"Stephanie, are you okay?" Donna’s voice was choked with tears.

"I’ll live," I gritted out.

Just then, that damned Ashley "accidentally" drifted over again.

"Stephanie, are you alright? It’s all my fault, I…" She reached out a hand as if to steady me.

But her hand landed with perfect precision on the valve of a nearby secured oxygen tank.

*Bang!*

The valve broke loose.

High-pressure oxygen erupted with a sharp, hissing roar.