Jonah was killing time at the airport, sipping bad coffee and scrolling through his phone, when he noticed something odd on the departure board.
Flight 000 — Destination: ??? — Gate Z99.
At first, he thought it was a glitch. But then he saw him: a man in a crisp gray suit, walking briskly with a boarding pass in his hand. Jonah followed out of pure boredom, curious to see where “Gate Z99” could be.
The signs led him further and further into the airport, past familiar terminals, then into areas he’d never seen before — long empty hallways, old signs half torn off the walls. Finally, there it was: Z99.
A gate with no airline logo, no staff, no announcements. Just a glass door leading to a jet bridge.
And through the window, Jonah saw the plane.
It wasn’t like any plane he’d seen before. Sleek, silver, no windows, no markings. Just a smooth, humming body of metal.
The suited man scanned his boarding pass at a machine that looked decades out of date, then stepped inside.
Jonah almost laughed. This can’t be real, he thought. But then the plane’s door closed. The jet bridge pulled away. And without a sound, the strange aircraft lifted smoothly into the sky, straight up, disappearing into the clouds.
Jonah blinked hard, rubbing his eyes. When he looked again, the gate was empty. The display above it was blank.
And the strangest part?
When he checked his phone later, he found a photo in his gallery he didn’t remember taking. It showed the silver plane mid-air, and in the windowless body, his own reflection staring back.
