Hi. My name is Jess. Something special about me? Apart from being able to talk to my dead brother, there is nothing special about me. And this is my story.
Lying in my dorm bed, I wait. I wait for the noise around me to die down. The alarm, the voices, the sound of the fireman truck. I wait for him to dissipear. Him. My brother Karl. My dead brother Karl.

-Why are you here? I ask, my eyes closed.
-Why did you do this?

I open my eyes. All I can see is the reflection of the lights of the truck on the ceiling: red color, surrounded by the darkness of my room. Perfect setting to talk to your dead brother.

-Why do you care? You do not exist. You should not care.
-Then how do I know that your roomate is going to enter your room now.
-Great.

At this instant, the door opens. My roomate enters and grabs her laptop.

-Hey Jess, aren't you going to come downstairs?

Why does she sound panicked?

-No. Maybe when the building starts crumbling, I'll think about it.
-WHAT? But but...but the building is on fire!
-No it's not, I'm sure it's just a drill.
-Your choice! I am going out of here.

The door closes, and I wait. Hours passed. Students came back inside, not my roomate though. Karl was still here. The noise died down. Silence is back. I like silence. He starts looking at me.

-You still think that I'm not real?
-Yes I think so.
-Then why do you answer back?
-Because I can hear you for some reason. And you are bugging me.
-You changed Jess.
-And you died. Shit happens. Now let me sleep.

I rollover and pull the sheets over my whole body. As I close my eyes, I feel like he is not here anymore. I do not check though. I never check. Maybe I would not mind so much if he was not covered in blood. Maybe if he did not look like he just got out of his accident. I finally fall asleep.

It's Saturday. Why would I wake up at seven in the morning on a Saturday? I still wonder myself.
I look at the sun rise as I step on the bus. My plan? Sit in the back, put my music player on and waste an hour on the bus. Relax. Next stop. Everything becomes so silent.
Two old looking man get on and sit at the front. Maximum distance between me and them. Why, then, do I hear them so clearly? And why did my music stop playing?

-Are you sure this is going to work?
-Yes, everything is in place.

My player hasn't stopped functionning. The track still plays forward.

-Where?
-Outside of Armstrong Building, right beneath the the statue.

I look around. Everything looks fine. Except for one detail. The only sound I can hear is the voices of those two men.

-Is this not risky?
-No. The only way to see it is to...

What? Is to what?
Just like that. Everything suddenly comes back to normal. I can hear my player perfectly fine. The sun rose what seems like ages ago. What the hell was this?
Next stop: Armstrong Building. What do I do? Think, quickly think.
I get up, walk towards the back door of the bus, and get out. The sky changes color all of a sudden. Red. Orange. Fire. Why? I look up. A plane. A plane is coming down. A plane is coming down on campus.

What do I do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was a morning like every other. The sun rose at the time it was supposed to. The bus started running at the time they were scheduled to. The birds sang when mother nature decided they had to. This was a Saturday morning like every other for Chris. He woke up to the sound of his alarm. Almost like a reflex, his hand raised in the air and slapped the SNOOZE button. Why did the sound not stop?

Chris opened his eyes and looked outside his window. Where was the sound coming from? And why did it seem like voices?

-Is it not risky?
-No. The only way to see it is to understand braille. That and have the correct location of the code on the statue.
-Good then. Let's begin on Monday.
-Yes Sir.

Chris did not understand what was going on. The voices stopped. But something else began. The sound of an alarm. His cellphone rings. It's a message. A message from Campus Emergency Alert Service.

"Please stay in your respective rooms. Students living in Purdue Village please wait for the Police. A plane has just crashed on the empty field opposite to Dairy Queen next to Follets."

Silence again. No more sound. No more sight. Only the echo of a phone dropping on the floor.

-Oh my God...Kate...

This was a morning like every other. But not for Chris, running outside his dorm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do I do? What do you do when a plane is about to crash on your campus? I'm still looking up, petrified. The plane turns around. Looks like it is going towards Follet's. I look down, around me. Here he is. Karl.

-What is going on here? I shout to him.

I do not know why I am shouting.

-Do not forget the voices. Do not always look for silence. Act.
-What? This is not real. This is not real!

I fall down, my back to the statue of Neil Armstrong sitting down, looking torwards where the plane is heading. Karl is gone yet again. What do I do?

What do I do?