They stood on the edge of the rooftop, the toes of their sneakers almost over it. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of orange, red, and gold, and somewhere behind the buildings and the roads they could see the thin silver belt of the ocean.

Kat looked down at her toes and over the edge into the depths of the fall that lay in front of them.

"You're insane," she said.

"Probably," Sky replied with a faint laugh. "Nothing new there."

"Of all the things in the world, you had to pick one I'm afraid of. The one!"

"Well, I would've loved to drive a 1966 Thunderbird into the Grand Canyon, but I'm pretty short on convertibles."

At that Kat laughed - her laughter loud and bubbling and unashamed as always. Kat never giggled, she never hid her mouth when she laughed. Instead, she laughed as she lived - loudly, boldly, as if she had nothing to lose.

"You're sure it's gonna work?" she asked, turning her dark eyes back to Sky.

"No. But this fall would kill anyone. And since we're already dead–" she shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'll wake up in my body? Maybe we both move on to that place you told about–?"

"Or we both go straight through that parking lot into the sewers."

"Well, you're the one who told me it was time to hop back into my body," Sky said softly. "If you have any other ideas on how to do it, I'm all open."

Kat's eyes turned serious, even if she was still smiling. For a moment she looked like she was about to say something - maybe that this was a stupid idea, that it would never work, that they should just stay here and be together like this, forever, because she didn't want this to end either, because they still hadn't talked about all the things they wanted to talk about, there was still so much to say, so much to do.

But Sky knew there would never be enough time to say all they wanted to say. There would never be enough time to just lay side by side on the grass and count the stars. Even if they had 100 years together, it would never be enough.

She would never be ready to let go.

And that's why she had to do it now, before she lost all courage.

"I love you," Sky breathed, and threw her arms around Kat's neck.

Kat pulled her close, wrapping her in a tight embrace. "I love you too."

She squeezed her hard against her chest as if she never wanted to let go either. Her breathing was shaky, her body tense, anxious, restless.

"You think we need a running start?" Kat asked, when finally letting go of Sky.

Sky wiped her cheeks, but her throat was still thick with tears. Her breathing came in short, shaky exhales.

"Hell, yeah."

She took Kat's hand in hers, and they walked further from the edge. The salty wind had started to blow from the ocean, it was in Kat's hair, throwing the silky black strands around her face. There was blood on her shirt, Sky noticed now. Blood around a bullet hole that was right in the middle of her chest, in the center of the Slipknot logo, and blood had stained her hands too but her eyes were golden in the light of the setting sun, and she was beautiful.

Sky gripped Kat's hand in hers, fiercely, and turned her eyes toward the edge of the roof. From here she couldn't see the fall, she could only see the concrete edge that met the pink and purple and red of the sky - as if the roof ended in the clouds.

"Ready?" Kat asked, her voice just a bit broken.

The wind was drying the tears on Sky's cheeks, it was drying the blood that trickled down the side of her face, but she could still taste it. Salt and copper and iron and the thick, sweet tang of roses on her tongue.

"No," she breathed. "But let's do it all the same."

And then they were running, then flying over the edge. They were golden rays of light in the air.

When they fell, Sky never let go of Kat's hand.

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🙌🏻😭❤️