Triple Digits

Claire Miles

She didn't bother screaming out for help this time. No help was coming. It was too late.
In fact, Strickland was not even visible on the sidelines of the race. Maybe he couldn't bear to see her die?
Claire Miles sat through the introductions for the racers once again, Eclipse having to make them, since there was no announcer tonight. Casanova must have been the other racer Eclipse threatened, because he was present tonight, his normally outgoing personality diminished with a fear-pinched face. She felt him look to her repeatedly, but she kept her eyes locked onto the steering wheel, her foot waiting by the accelerator, anxious for the race to start and her life to end. She was just going to drive tonight. It didn't matter if she won or lost, because she was going to die. Before helping her into the car, Eclipse had opened the hood to the Peregrine, and shown Claire the explosives he'd put in there, explaining that her death would be swift and mostly painless. 'Over in a flash,' as he'd so helpfully described it, just like her career as a street-racer. The doors and windows were locked. Her seatbelt was sealed in place.
Sitting in the seat of her Peregrine, her fingers running weakly over the familiar interior, she debated if she would do anything differently. If, knowing about the killer, she still would have come to Mid-City to escape her family.
She probably would have. She was odd, like that.
When her name was called, and the Peregrine made its way forward against her will, she was surprised to find the sides of the street crowded with people, many of them waving flags or signs in support for Triple Digits. A memorial.
Impossibly, tears prickled at her eyes, spilling over, and this time, she let herself cry openly, bowing over the steering wheel and sobbing. This was unfair! She didn't deserve to die like this!
Already waiting in place as she pulled up, Casanova was wiping away his own tears. Their eyes locked.
"I'm sorry," he mouthed to her, like any of this was his fault! She lifted her mask, exhaling onto the window and shakily drawing a smiley face that was askew. He huffed a mournful laugh in his vehicle. Claire lowered her head back to the steering wheel, and there was a 'BANG!' from the car next to her that made her ears pop. She flinched, lifting her head and looking back at Casanova's car.
The inside of the windows were painted red, like a spraypaint can had exploded within his car. People screamed on the sidelines.
Claire's eyes widened.
Had he just... Shaking her head in horror, she hugged herself tightly, whimpering. She wanted to throw up, but there was nothing in her stomach left.
The killer would be joining the race, since he was making his announcements from the vehicle. People had booed his entrance.
Eclipse didn't seem to notice that Casanova had just killed himself rather than participate in his little death race. Claire didn't bring it to his attention.
"Are you ready for the most memorable race in Mid-City's history?" Eclipse's voice boomed over the loud speakers set up around the track. People booed.
"One!"
Nobody counted with him. Claire let out another sob. She wished she had something of Strickland's to hold onto while she died.
"Two!"
She didn't bother lifting her head from the steering wheel, although she gripped it with one hand.
"Three!" Her car shot forward just enough to try and spur her into action, and she slammed her foot down on the accelerator, not even bothering to look at where she was going. If she hit a wall, then even better.
"Over in a flash," she whispered to herself for reassurance.
With her head bowed and her eyes tightly scrunched up, Claire didn't notice the way Eclipse's car began to slow, his engine failing him. She did not see the police that swarmed down to arrest him. She simply kept driving, hoping to hit the wall at the start of the bridge across the bay.
And she did not notice, until it was too late, the car that raced up toward her left side, slamming into the Peregrine and sending both vehicles crashing down the banks of the bay, and into the water with an explosion of glass and squealing metal...
Her final thought before her head struck the steering wheel was one of Corey Strickland, and how much she loved him.