AUF WIEDERSEHEN. GOODBYE DIAMOND.

The Porsche swerved around cliff edges, through crystalline underpasses, through tree-branch tunnels, and finally, when they reached sea level, Ali and Diamond smelled city smoke. After long distances of dirt path—waves of dark ash kicked up and devoured the cars field of view.

The ash was so thick, Diamond screeched to a halt. He glanced at Ali and she returned only a look of indifference. True, they'd need to get out and walk through fields of ash to get to the city now because the Porsche windshield wiper function was broken from the beach blizzard, but the only think that was really on her mind was the thought of how Diamond, the person sitting next to her, the boy she shared her first sensual experiences with, the boy she thought would be there for her once she was out of this mess and back to her family, was actually, nonexistent now. Gone from reality, gone from the outside world. And now only in existence by her mental fiction, as a figment of her imagination. Because, he was. . . dead.

She stepped out of the car without a word, and Diamond followed suit, standing close, probably wondering what she was upset about.

They walked through the ashes—Ali in Mrs. Diamond's white fur coat, Diamond in his regular suit jacket. Their clothes soon layered under blankets of ash, and what began as a cold journey for them became heated like an oven.

"It's hot," said Diamond. He studied Ali who only nodded; after said nod they grabbed their coats and carried them along the way.

The sky was a pitch-black, almost solid ceiling. It was murky and Diamond pulled a lighter from his pocket he'd gotten as a gift from one of his party guests and led them through the dark. The ashen precipitation fell on Ali's shiny, little black dress, making it faded. Sickly black flakes padded her bare shoulders, and soon the two of them disappeared with the background, except for their eyes, and for their moving limbs.

"We're on lower ground than the city. That's probably why the ash is so thick." Again, Ali only nodded. They walked further apart, Ali slightly ahead, perhaps because Diamond realized Ali didn't want to speak to him.

The ash fell harder, and soon Diamond pulled the handkerchief from his jacket packet and handed it to Ali, who assembled it around her nose and mouth. Only then did she feel obligated to say at the very least, a simple "thanks."

He nodded to her, not saying anything. They continued to walk, and he pulled sunglasses from his pocket, placing them over his eyes, however, he took them off several minutes later after he tripped over some rockets and slight cracks in the ground. It was simply too dark for sunglasses.

Finally, Ali felt her foot sink into a puddle. She stopped, until Diamond caught up.

He realized the predicament, and picked up a rock and threw it far. . .

The fields of ash far ahead splashed high into the air, the sound of water squirting underneath it.

"It's a lake. Maybe from flooding. I don't remember a body of water being here."

Ali looked to him, her head slightly dangled. She wasn't exactly sad because of the obstruction. Arriving to the tallest building in the city, only to climb to the top and jump off it wasn't exactly her favorite activity in the world. And procrastinating wouldn't make her any less unhappy about it.

Then again—the sooner the better. . . Except for one thing.

She looked to Diamond who studied the ashen laden lake.

"How will we get across?"

Diamond spun his head around. Surprised she knew he existed.

"I don't know."

"Walk around it maybe?"

"No, this body of water looks to big. Could take days."

Ali groaned.

"I don't want it to take days."

"Me neither."

"Well—we can't just sit here—the ashes will bury us."

Diamond stroked his hair back, and he squinted his eyes.

"We can swim."

Ali slapped his arm.

"Hell no."

Diamond rolled his eyes and unbuttoned the top of his shirt. He threw his jacket to the ground.

"You can't be serious."

"I am." He peeled off his shirt. And unbuckled his pants.

"No way."

"Yup." He was in his underwear.

Ali looked at his clothes on the ground. "You're just gonna leave your clothes here?"

"I'll just grab some clothes from the mall when we're in the city."

In a moment, Diamond nose-dived into the lake of ashes, and the splash hit Ali's clothes. She couldn't believe it. She fell into a frozen trans for a moment, as she watched the black lake calm, while she waited for Diamond to resurface. But he never did.

She stomped her foot. You gotten be kidding me.

She blew her hair up off her face and rolled her eyes. . . until looked across the black skies and decided:

"It's better with you than without. . ."

She shed her clothes. And in one hesitated second-- plunged into the blackness.

* * *

She expected the water to sting. but the water felt like air. She could open her eyes, and instead of the darkness she'd expected underneath the surface, she spotted a glowing cascade of falling ashes in a field of dark grey-blue liquid. They twinkled in their descent, and Ali looked down, to find that the base of the deep dark lake, was glowing molten lava, giving birth to fire.

(The phenomenon she thought, reminded her dreams she used to have. . . nightmares actually. . . of how she would find herself waking from her bed in the middle of the night. . . and walking down stairs to the backyard. She'd look over the family backyard pool, and search for her brother at the bottom. . . But every time she couldn't find him. and there was no hope to find him sitting at the bottom either. Because the molten lava and fire at the pool's base had devoured him. She couldn't swim down to save him if she tried. . .)

Ali pulled her attention to the tiny figure ahead of her. A spec in the distance, a penguin, a shark, a glittering human swimming far ahead of her.

Diamond-- She followed him. She swam and swam. Without any need for breath. And after what seemed like a few minutes, ten minutes, or maybe an hour of swimming, she saw him rise up to the surface. He disappeared until only his feet were visible, turned and facing her, waiting until she arrived, and she lifted her face above the surface.

* * *

Concrete and the sun appear overhead. She looks up, but it's not the sun. It's five circling skyscrapers, each glowing and on fire are their peaks.

The city was ash free-- the smoke and debris carried off into the land that circled all around them.

She lifted out of the water, where Diamond stood, and they stared at each other in their underwear. Diamond pointed over Ali's head.

"There's the parking structure. Fifty stories."

Ali turned and looked up. There it was. The site of her suicide.

"Come." Diamond pulled Ali's hand, and led her to an elevator across the pavement. They circled the ridge of the lake they'd just emerged from, which was actually just a small wishing well without a bottom.

After Diamond pressed the elevator button, he looked to Ali, who stood there in a trans. He squeezed her hand. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Ali said nothing.

When the elevator door's opened. She stepped inside. She turned and saw Diamond standing on the other side. It took him a moment to step in, until he took a breath and entered.

The doors closed.

* * *

They only rose ten stories before Diamond stopped the elevator and the doors open.

Ali woke from her trans. "Where are you going?"

Diamond had stepped out of the elevator and began walking to the edge of a wall. Not wanting to jump alone, she slipped through the elevator doors before they began to close.

Diamond kept his back to her.

"I can't go with you."

Ali shrunk to dwarf size. She watched him put his hands over the edge and stare over the city. The sun blared over it with hot white light.

"But. . . I need you to come."

Diamond turned his neck but only revealed half his face, as his eyes fell to his shoes.

"Stay."

Ali said nothing. She kept her hand on the elevator.

Diamond lifted his eyes to the adjacent wall, and walked across the concrete. As he crossed over the corner pillar, she noticed how the sky changed from day to night on opposite sides of the parking structure. While the sun levitated over the baby-blue sky on one side, the moon and stars floated in a field of navy-purple on the other.

Diamond glanced over the city again, before he swallowed; his eyes misted, he turned his eyes to her.

". . . Why don't you love me, Ali?"

Ali's eyes misted. The parking structure seemed to disappear under the rising river in her eyes.

"I don't know you. Not really."

Diamond clenched his eyelids together and let out a breath of disgust.

Ali let the elevator doors close, and she walked to him, stopping on the side of the pillar where the sun shed daylight across the pavement.

"I don't know who you think you are. . . but as far as I can tell I've done nothing to deserve you. Why you've come here, to save me-- there's no pretext for your sudden love for me. . . It doesn't make sense. It's a dream."

Diamond frowned before he turned on his heal. His eyes were wide and glittering and stepped closer to her but stayed on the side of the pillar still in the shadow of the moon.

"I don't know who you think you are. . . but as far as I can tell, you've done everything to deserve me. You're smart, kind, funny-- beautiful. . . You're honest about your past. You fight back Josh and his gang rather than take the easy route of going with them and leaving me behind. You could've gone with them, but instead you stayed with me, because you trusted me. I understand what you're going through. This whole mess has made you have to take stands and make decisions to fight or fly which most suburban children are incapable of. I'll even tolerate your cold shoulders and silent treatments because I understand you're upset--" (He stepped forward and pointed his finger upwards) "--but I will never forgive you, if you jump."

"I have to jump. To wake up. To save my teacher."

"How do you know if you're really dreaming?"

"Because six times now, you've changed into the persona of my sister. I haven't even seen her in ten years. And that's how I know this world isn't real. She is interrupting my dreams with you from the outside. And that's how I know I must go--"

She stepped to the pillar in between night and day and said:

"Cole Diamond-- Everything that you are to me. . . is a dream."

But she shook and dangled her head. "Nothing but a dream."

Diamond stepped forward to the pillar between night and day and sighed. "Ali--" He raised her chin, and lifted her face into his eyes. "Everything. . . that you are to me. . . bringers wonder. . . to my world."

He loved her. Those eyes misted with the dark pain of a breaking heart. Whether he was real or not, she was hurting him. But she needed to wake up to save her sister's husband. She couldn't be selfish. Even if it meant leaving this world that was all her own; leaving this world which offered distant beach and boats and nice cars and Tuscan beaches only a day away; even if it meant leaving the most beautiful boy. . .

She couldn't be selfish, and as she stared into his eyes, and saw herself sparkling in them as reflected objects of his desires. . . she knew he was the only thing keeping her from jumping. He was the last obstacle in her way. She couldn't leave him if he came with her because. . . his face would dissuade her at the very last second for sure.

She had to send him away. Get him to leave her on his own.

She didn't pull her face away from him. But instead, would get him to pull away himself. She said the magic words.

"You're a figment of my imagination."

His misted eyes cleared immediately and he stared at her in awe.

"What did you say?"

Ali licked her lips, and felt the hard guilt plague her heart.

"You're a figment of my imagination."

He dropped his hand from her face and pulled away.

"I'm real. You love me."

Ali's tears swam down her cheeks. She felt a cold chill crawl up her spine.

"You can't love what isn't real."

Diamond said nothing, but seemed to shrink in height as he lost confidence in her.

"You don't mean it, Ali. You love me."

He touched the railing for support, and leaned on it, clutching his chest. He looked around at the pavement, seeing himself alone.

"Goodbye Diamond." Ali stepped backward toward the elevator.

"Ali." He lifted his hand to her, but crumpled against the wall. The moonlight shined over him as he fell into the dark of the walls shadow. "Please don't go."

Ali pressed the button and the doors opened. "It's time I wake up now." She entered, and turned to the tenth floor. Diamond seemed to have disappeared all together, but she knew he was still there, crumpled in the dark of the wall, silent beneath the moonlight.

"Goodbye Diamond."

The doors began to close, and without a sound of reply, the elevator raised her up.