She woke up what could have been either minutes or hours later. Or even days. But she didn’t see any clocks nearby to tell her how long it’d been, and the mattress she was lying on was lumpy and uneven. As she opened her eyes, her memories came shooting back into her head. The lost luggage. The taxi she’d gotten into. And how she’d fallen asleep as soon as the driver had taken off.

“Fuck!” Iris leapt up. She was standing under a starry, full-mooned sky, in a giant field, and she had absolutely no idea where she was. “What to do, w-what to do…” she stammered, glancing left and right. On the ground a few feet away lay her bag, and she rushed over to it. Maybe she could call her mom, or her brother, and get their help. But after she’d scrambled to her bag and dumped its contents out onto the ground, she realized quite quickly that not only was she in the middle of nowhere with no idea where she was, but she also had no phone, no wallet, and nothing except the magazine she’d read on the flight, her diary, two pens, and the airplane vouchers. A lot of good those would do now.

[Read more…]