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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/abduladhlazeez on 2023-07-06 11:42:28+00:00.

I am a pilot for a reputed cargo airline in the US. I’ve had the most bizarre experience of my flying career and I don’t know what to do.

It was a normal day in Florida, I checked my laptop for the flight schedule, I had to go from Miami to Puerto Rico and back. That sounded like great news to me, I could come home on the same day at least.

My co-pilot for the flight was a chap named Jim, I immediately took to him during our pre-flight briefings, and we stepped into our retrofitted Boeing 737.

The first leg of the flight was normal, with no turbulence, except for the Air Traffic Control diverting us over Cuba to avoid a bit of stormy-looking clouds over the ocean.

“We missed the Bermuda Triangle” announced Jim looking at his digital map.

“You believe in those fairy tales?” I asked him.

I had flown the route a couple of times before and I had never noticed anything different about the so-called Bermuda Triangle. It was probably a hoax by some adults living in their parent’s basements seeking attention.

“Oh it’s real all right,” said Jim seriously, “Why do you think we were diverted over Cuba?”

I chuckled,

“Diversions happen all the time Jim. A storm cloud is nothing paranormal”

There was no time to discuss this further as we had to prepare for landing. We landed safely, the crew reloaded the plane and the ground crew started to refuel the aircraft. One of the mechanics came up to me with a frown on his face.

“Captain, there seems to be a slight issue”

“Slight issue eh?”

“Yes Cap’n, looks like a fuel leak in one of the lines”

I sighed, company policy on suspected fuel leaks was to perform an inspection and ground the aircraft and who knew how long that would take? I called the dispatcher back home and after consulting with the engineering team, they gave the green light to perform the inspection.

Jim and I had a bit of lunch in the airport and I was reading some stuff on my phone in the crew room to pass the time. Long story short, after about six hours the mechanics told us that the plane was airworthy once again and we could fly back. Hell, at least no passengers were complaining to the management.

It was evening and darkness had started to fall. I was a bit happy as the late flight home meant that my flight tomorrow would be rescheduled. This time we were flying right over the Bermuda Triangle and Jim wasn’t happy.

“I have this eerie sensation,” he said, “Every time I fly over this. And it looks so creepy in the dark”

“It’s because of the endless ocean. It does look pitch dark outside” I joked and that’s where things started to go sideways.

There was a jolt and the aircraft shook, I frowned,

“That’s some strong wind”

Jim looked scared,

“I dunno Captain, that didn’t feel natural”

At once the 737 started to shake uncontrollably, and my heart leapt into my mouth as the aircraft started to lose altitude. At night you can’t see a darned thing out of the windshield and over the ocean, it’s impossible to gauge your height. Naturally, I started to scan the instruments for any indication of defects. Maybe the engineers had done something wrong.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Jim. I grabbed the yoke and tried to force the nose up,

“Power back Jim”

Jim pulled the throttle back and I held the yoke with an iron grip. After a terrifying two minutes, the aircraft levelled out and both of us breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the storm cloud earlier had caused an air pocket and it was our bad luck to stumble on it.

“Oh shit,” said Jim looking out the window and what I saw made my blood turn cold.

At night, the white cloud cover that you normally see when flying isn’t that visible and depends on the moon. What I saw defied all explanation. The clouds below us were forming a vortex and were blood red

To my horror, the aircraft started to shudder and the clouds started spinning, I think Jim wet himself as we were being sucked in. The nose tipped towards the swirling vortex that looked like it was a portal to hell.

I frantically tried to control the plane, but it was like something else had taken over. The controls were unresponsive, and we were going down fast. Jim and I exchanged a horrified look, we knew that this was it. We were going to crash. Was this how so many countless deaths were caused? An anomaly in the weather that not even our brainiest scientists could figure out?

But then, something even more bizarre happened. The vortex seemed to spit us out, and we were flying in a completely different place. It was like we had been transported to another dimension. The sky was darker, the clouds were black and red, and the air was filled with an ominous silence. I couldn’t understand what was going on. Scientifically I rejected the theory of alternate dimensions but a horrible feeling grew in my chest. Was it real after all? What gave me the creeps even more was the land below us, it looked like the surface of Mars.

“What the hell just happened?!” Jim asked, visibly shaken.

“I don’t know, but I think we need to get out of here. Fast.” I replied.

I tried to turn the plane around, but the controls were still unresponsive. We were trapped in this otherworldly place, with no way out. To make it worse, our navigation system wasn’t showing us anything and was blank. I tried to place a call using our plane’s satellite calling system but it wouldn’t connect. Yeah, we were screwed.

That’s when things started to get even stranger. I saw something moving outside the window, something that shouldn’t exist. My scientific brain couldn’t understand what it was seeing. It was like a shadow, but it had a form. It was coming closer and closer. A grey mist started to envelop the aircraft, it was almost as if we were flying in a cloud, only the clouds here were black and red.

“Jim, do you see that?!” I asked, my voice shaking.

He looked out the window and his eyes widened in terror. “What the hell is that?!”

The shadowy figure was now just inches away from the plane. It was like it was trying to get inside. I could feel a cold breeze coming through the window, even though the plane was still flying. It was dark grey and didn’t have a proper shape but reminded me of the Grim Reaper that you see in some storybooks. Cold drops of sweat formed on my forehead as the entity or whatever that thing was formed a long finger with a pointed claw and tapped on the window.

We both screamed in terror as the figure suddenly disappeared. But then, we heard a voice. A voice that sounded like it was coming from inside the plane.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Jim and I looked at each other, both of us paralyzed with fear.

“Who’s there?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my bravado gone.

No one answered, but we could feel a presence in the cockpit. A presence that was not human. The already cold cockpit got colder and I was paralyzed in fear, too scared to turn around. I saw a grey mist fill the cockpit and that was the last thing that I remember before blacking out.

When I came to, we were back on Earth and flying over the place where we had encountered the portal or whatever that vortex was. The rest of the journey was in silence and I have no idea how Jim and I managed to land the aircraft safely.

Jim handed in his resignation on the same day but I decided to stay. We recalled the event perfectly but decided not to mention it to anyone. I like my job and don’t want to be sent to the therapist, or even worst, have my licence revoked.

I drove home, gripping the steering wheel of my Ford pickup in fear, not daring to look behind me. I stopped at a fast food joint and ate in the pickup itself. Once I went home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me. I had lived alone for the majority of my life and had never experienced this feeling before.

I went to bed immediately after a shower but I couldn’t make myself fall asleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, I managed to sleep but my dreams were plagued by the shadowy entity who laughed in my face about not believing in the supernatural and how I would have to ‘pay penance’ for it. I dreamt that I was trapped in the other dimension and had no escape. I woke up, my pillow soaked in sweat despite the air conditioning.

I tried to call Jim, only to realize that I didn’t have his number. I ate some cornflakes, wondering whom to call, scrolling through my contacts and then it hit me. I could call Jackson.

Jackson was an investigator in the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and I had met the guy earlier in the airport. He was a loner like me and we had hung out a couple of times, watching the latest Marvel movies. He wouldn’t think I was slowly going insane anyway, so I called him.

Jackson, a guy who was usually light became serious and told me to stay where I was and not leave the house. He promised to be there within two hours with his team. I heaved a sigh of relief, finished the last of my coffee and realized that my laptop was in my room. I wanted to check if the company had changed my flight – there was no way I wanted to fly today until Jackson sorted this mess out. I went into my room and the door slammed closed behind me.

An icy feeling settled in my veins as I looked around. None of the windows were open so it couldn’t have been the wind. I crept forward, only to stop in my tracks as a grey mist formed in my room – the same grey mist tha…

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