Tell Them This When I Die

Kayla is sprinting. She's sprinting as hard as she can. She recognizes the road. Fourth street. Her apartment is two kilometres away, with the baby blue Porsche.

Leonardo's car swerves across the intersection behind her, laying down rubber.

Run with me, Kayla. Come on. It's good for you. That's what Eris would tell Kayla. Eris used to be a track star in high school—she'd been some sort of crazy athlete. She still ran often, begged Kayla to do it with her.

You never know, Eris had told her. You never know when you might need to run.

Kayla sprints faster than she ever thought she could. Get to the baby blue Porsche, drive like a maniac to Nyx. Warn Eris that the cops are coming. Get her out of the country.

Leonardo's car takes a side street as Kayla runs through the yard of another house. She can hear it accelerate, hear it following her. She jumps over a fence, falls on her face, and gets back up.

One kilometre. It can't be far now. The baby blue Porsche is waiting. It can beat Leonardo.

Leonardo drives like Eris would. He skids past intersections, following Kayla as she doges him. She runs like a damn track star, the starving girl. He gets close a couple times, but then she darts into someone's yard.

The houses end as Kayla reaches the business street. Her apartment is right there. The baby blue Porsche, the spare keys on the tire.

Leonardo steps on it. She's in plain view now, only businesses on either side of the street. She sprints down the sidewalk. He'll run her over if that's what it takes.

Right as Leonardo gets close, Kayla takes a right into the underground lot. She jumps over the parking arm. Runs for the Porsche. The spare keys are on the tire.

It comes into view right as Leonardo hits the parking arm and accelerates into the lot. Kayla slides over the back of the car. Snatches the keys out of the tire. Gets in. Starts up the baby blue Porsche.

She backs out, crashing the back of the Porsche into Leonardo's bumper. She pushes him back, into the other cars, and spins the wheel. Steps on it. To Nyx.

Adam is getting back into his car. Wilkes and Clips are in theirs. To Nyx. Arrest Eris. Put her in jail. He calls her on the way there. Screw it. He's going to warn her. She doesn't pick up.

Nikolas calls her when he gets to the hospital. I need to make a call, he says. I have to make a call. Please. He calls her, and she doesn't pick up.

Kayla calls from the dash of the Porsche. Eris doesn't pick up.

Leonardo chases the Porsche. He'll ram it.

Kayla was taught to drive a manual by Eris. First, second. Clutch in, clutch out. Nyx is only meters away. She'll get out. Run up to the penthouse. She nears as Leonardo comes racing from behind her. She can see the Maserati in the parking lot. Eris is there. She hits the brakes, parks right in front of the building.

Leonardo presses his foot to the floor. He doesn't care. He'll ram her.

He does. Ninety-five kilometres an hour, just as Kayla undoes her seatbelt to get out. The baby blue Porsche crashes into the telephone pole across from Nyx, folding into it. The airbags go off; pieces of the Porsche curl and break and smash. Kayla's head hits the window and cracks. She's unconscious on impact. She won't wake up for weeks, if she ever does.

Leonardo's neck makes a snapping sound as his car hits hers. Blood runs down his face, his arms. He gets out of the car. Runs. He's neutralized this threat. There is glass in his leg, and his arm is broken. He doesn't care.

Adam is calling Eris again as he drives. Wilkes and Clips are pulling up to Nyx as two ambulances do the same. There's been some sort of accident out front. Adam can see the Maserati parked in the spot it's always in.

"Adam?"

Adam looks down at his phone. Eris picked up. He puts the car in park. He can see Wilkes and Clips pulling up behind him.

"Eris, we found your shit. They're at Nyx."

A police helicopter is coming to circle Nyx. Wilkes and Clips are getting out of their cars. The paramedics are pulling someone who's either dead or unconscious out of a blue Porsche.

"Sorry, Adam," Eris says. She adjusts the phone near her shoulder. "You're breaking up. What's going on?"

"Eris, we're at Nyx. Get out of there."

Adam can hear the chopper blades from her side of the line. She has to be close. She's up there. But it sounds windy.

"Eris—"

"It's okay, Adam. It'll be fine."

Adam can hear the wind for her side of the line. The chopper blades are screaming. Wilkes and Clips are breaking the front door to Nyx.

"Eris, where are you?"

"It's going to be fine, Adam," she says. Her voice is nearly lost in the wind.

"Eris, please. Get out of that penthouse."

"I'm not in the penthouse, Adam," she says.

Adam gets out of his car. Looks up. He can see the roof of Nyx, silhouetted across the sky. The wind. The chopper blades. I'd like to die spectacularly.

"Eris, no."

"I'm not happy, Adam," she says. The cold air brushes her skin. The chopper cuts through the air. For being so high up, you'd think the service would be better.

Wilkes and Clips have broken through the hallway door. They come up to the penthouse. It's dark. Clips is practicing his lines. Eris Diakos, you're under arrest for the possession and selling of deadly—

"You're not going to jump. Don't you dare jump." Adam is running around the front of the building, trying to see her.

"You know, I've tried to think of something to tell you," Eris says. The wind is frostbitten, cold. "Something really great and tragic. Something you can tell them when I die."

"Eris please stop, please—"

"City police. Open up."

Nobody opens the door to the penthouse. Clips gestures for the officers to ram it.

"I can't really think of anything," Eris says to Adam. "Not really anything that encompasses me. I don't have one sentence that explains all the things I did and why I did them. It's too complicated for that. There's too much to explain."

"Eris please." Adam's voice is a scream, desperate. He's running to the side of the building. He'll catch her. If she jumps, he'll catch her. Somehow.

They get through the door of the penthouse. It bursts open, and a gunshot sounds. Everyone in the hallway ducks.

"Do not jump," Adam yells, sprinting.

They pick the mess that is Kayla out of the baby blue Porsche she saved up for nine months to buy. The one Eris painted for her. The car is ruined. Kayla is unconscious.

Clips uncovers his head. Pushes open the door again. Another gunshot. But, no—that's not a gunshot. It sounds a little bit too much like a pop.

"Honestly, Adam," Eris says, "I think you just have to tell them the whole story. Every word, from every perspective. Don't focus just on me. People aren't good or bad, Adam. It's not so simple. I don't think you can really get anything across with one sentence."

Clips pushes through the door. Pops. More pops. Not gunshots. More like...he pauses. More like...balloons.

"Don't jump!" Adam is screaming, trying to find her.

Clips stands upright. They are balloons. The penthouse is dark, and it's filled with balloons. Hundreds of them. They pop as he pushes through them. They're inscribed. Every single balloon says the name 'Clips' with a heart around it.

"Tell it all," Eris says to Adam. "Every word. Tell them that when I die."

Eris hangs up the phone. Takes a deep breath of cold air. She jumps, out of the helicopter, and onto a Swiss mountain.