Falling by Accident // Billie Eilish

Five

FIVE

POV Lea

The elevator might crash... 

It doesn't feel real. 

Billie and I just wait, exchanging small talks and jokes, pressed against each other as time goes by slowly. The woman, a technician we now know, sometimes talks to us on the other end of the intercom, but she seems tensed and it only adds to the uneasy atmosphere.

I tried to reach my parents on Billie's phone but it has almost no battery now, just like mine, so I can only be mad at myself for not deciding to call them earlier. The technician told me they've been warned about the whole situation and everyone is trying their best to get us out of here, but obviously it only makes everything more real. I feel sick in the stomach and as horrible as it sounds, I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

A few more hours go by, Billie and I share the snacks I had kept in my bag for lunch, and as we speak we unveil things more and more intimate. I guess the situation helps.

« You know what ? Since we're stuck here anyway, why not make the most out of it ? » Billie suddenly declares, taking a pocket knife out of her hoodie.

She begins to engrave her initials on one of the walls of the elevator, looking at me from the corner of her eye with a playful smile. I laugh like a kid, and I hasten to take her knife when she's done to do the same. We both chuckle at our stupidity but keep redecorating the walls, drawing everything that goes through our head. Soon enough, the elevator looks more like a squat than anything else.

« What if we each write a secret nobody knows on the walls, without looking at the other one, and when we're done we show it to the other ? » I propose to her with a giggle.

Billie smiles at the idea and nods, before taking the knife out of my hands.

« I start, » she says in a excited tone.

I close my eyes and I hear her thinking for a while, and then the sound of the knife against the wall. When she's done she gives me the knife back and I start engraving my secret on the wall too, without looking at hers even if the curiosity is killing me. Once the time has come to open our eyes to discover the other's secret, a bit of anxiety overwhelms me. Billie counts down.

« Three, two, one, open ! »

I immediately look at what she wrote, and surprise makes me incapable of saying anything. I see Billie laughing at my secret but I don't care anymore.

« No fucking way, » I say to her, shaking my head. « You didn't, there's no fucking way. »

I don't believe it.

On the wall, it's written : « I'm the one who stole the stone of Mercury of Chartres. »

This accident, everyone knows about it. It made headlines for weeks, and many paranormal believers developed crazy theories about the incident without having any proofs. It's still all over internet and nobody knows what happened.

Mercury of Chartres is the descendant of an extremely rich family, a family with contacts everywhere and an influence beyond imagination. A few months ago, to celebrate the two hundred years of the family business, Mercury of Chartres organized a huge gala mediated everywhere, with all public figures and celebrities invited. As a central event, Mercury had bought and brought from Africa a huge gemstone, known for its so-called magical abilities.

The stone in question was about to be presented when, all of a sudden, the electricity of the building in which the gala was held had suddenly broken, and the stone, however heavily guarded, had disappeared. Because of the presence of people of influence and the mass media coverage of the event, the police and even private investigators were involved in the case without result.

Today, everyone has their own theory, but no one really knows what happened. Until now. I don't know if Billie is serious or if she's just joking, but she's looking at me dead in the eyes.

« How ?! I don't believe you, how the fuck would you have caused it and nobody knows about it ?! » I ask her with disbelief.

« Dude, I promise it's true. Listen to me 'cause this story is fucking fire. This dude, Mercury, he even invited me, you know I'm famous and shit, and I actually decided to go. There was security guards everywhere and especially all over the stone. I drank that night, and I swear to god I don't know how I did it but I ended up near the room where the stone was guarded, » Billie starts to explain to me, and I see that she's actually proud of what she's telling.

I shake my head, not believing any of it. There's just no way. She frowns but keeps going.

« So, one of the security guard had to pee, and the other one had a moment of confusion and my drunk ass thought it would be a fun idea to try to enter the room, to actually see the gemstone you know ? And that's what I did. And the stone was just there, in front of my fucking eyes dude, and you know what there was too ? There was the whole system to control the electricity of the building. Next thing I know, I stumble, I fall on it, the thing breaks, electricity goes out, and I hear the security guards rushing to get in the room. »

Billie seems to be reliving the whole thing. Honestly, I'm starting to think she's not lying. But how ?!

« I panicked... Bro, I fucking panicked and I thought they would accuse of stealing the stone, so instead of trying to explain I just took it and ran. Everyone was so focused on the electricity that they didn't even notice my absence and I got away with it. Now the stone is still at my house, hidden, and I had to witness everyone getting excited about it, all the medias and shit, and I can't tell anyone because I'd never see the end of it, » Billie reveals, taking her head in her hands and laughing.

« No way... Are you kidding me ?! It's literally one of the biggest mystery and it happened just because you got fucking drunk ? I'm sorry but I can't believe it. I gotta see it, or else I just can't, » I answer, also laughing because this story is just surreal.

Billie looks at me with these fucking blue eyes, and this fucking smirk I've grown to like so much over the past hours, and now she's the one shaking her head and pointing at my secret on the wall.

« And you expect me to believe you're an author of erotic novels ?! At seventeen ?! What the fuck bro ? »

I bite my lip, annoyed because I've never told this to anyone and I wasn't planning on doing so until now. It's not something you're supposed to be proud of, especially when your novels are well-known and you're not even an adult yet. Nobody knows, not even my best friend.

« I used to write fanfics and erotica as a joke, but I got noticed on a website and I'm not gonna lie, I was well-paid to edit what I wrote. So yeah, I accepted and please, don't make me explain to you everything, » I tell Billie, embarrassed.

She laughs, and laughs, and can't stop laughing, and no matter how many times I tell her to stop she just doesn't. Damn, this is embarrassing.

But as she laughs, suddenly, the elevator begins to shake brutally and our little bubble of happiness explodes. We both fall to the ground, and we try to hang on to something, panicked, as the scrambled voice of the woman technician comes out of the intercom.

« Fuck, » screams Billie to cover the noise. « What's happening ? It's really gonna fucking... crash?! It's not, RIGHT?! »

I hear the fear in her voice but I'm too scared to even speak. We try to not move at all, we just breathe slowly, waiting. Come on, the elevator can't crash, it just can't. We're in a fucking nightmare, that's all. It can't be happening, you only see that shit in movies...

And as I'm thinking that, the elevator starts to fall at full speed. Everything is blurry. I see the face of Billie, panicked as she grabs my arm, and I feel my heart beating way too fast. My ears whistle. The elevator falls, falls, and I feel like I'm dying. 

It's crashing.

And I can only think about one thing.

I don't wanna die. 

********