Chapter 23: What She Left Behind
The sky was pale, washed of color, but the world beneath it stood still, holding its breath, as though it too feared what would come next.
Aria stood motionless in the center of the gallery. Her arms were crossed tightly, almost as though she feared her own body would betray her if she let go. The space, too, felt distant, as if the very walls knew their time had come. The room still carried the scent of old oil paint, of dying rain—echoes of a life that had already slipped into memory. The once-vibrant canvases leaned against forgotten easels, colors muted and dim. Time had passed here, but it had left no trace. Only ghosts.
Selene leaned against the rusted windowsill, her figure lithe and shadowed, eyes scanning the empty street below. The city had become a ghost of itself—streets now barren, windows cracked, the occasional gust of wind stirring scattered remnants of a time long past. Yet Selene, as always, found meaning in the stillness. There was something moving beneath the rot, something pulsing just beyond sight.
She hadn't spoken much since dawn.
The silence between them was thick, suffocating. But it was Aria who finally broke it.
"I went back in."
Selene didn't move, her eyes still distant, but her voice was soft. "Back into what?"
Aria's voice trembled with the weight of the words, almost lost in the quiet room. "That place. The… space."
She swallowed hard, the reality of it all threatening to rise within her.
"It's not a dream, is it?"
Selene's gaze shifted then, her expression unreadable, though something in her seemed to shift too. Her face, as always, betrayed nothing, but there was an ancient understanding in the way she looked at Aria now.
"No," Selene answered quietly. "It's yours."
Aria felt the weight of those words settle heavily on her chest. She looked down at her hands—hands that had opened something too dangerous to understand, something both beautiful and terrifying.
"I brought food into it," Aria said, voice strained. "A bag of fruit. And when I came back hours later, it was still fresh. Untouched."
Selene nodded, her tone carrying the sharpness of someone who had known the truth long before Aria had. "Time doesn't move there. It's a dead pocket."
Aria's eyes darted toward the ground, as if she were searching for something hidden in the shadows. "But only for things," she whispered. "Animals too. But… not people."
Selene turned, her jaw tightening slightly. "Only you can enter."
Aria's voice dropped, almost in a whisper. "So I'm the only one who gets to be safe."
The words hung in the air like a confession, raw and vulnerable. The silence thickened between them, heavier now, pressing against Aria's chest. Her breath caught as she waited for the inevitable.
Selene, always the observer, let the moment stretch before finally speaking. Her voice was gentler now, softer, like she had been waiting for this too. "You always hated that."
Aria's shoulders stiffened. "Hated what?"
"Being the only one allowed to survive."
The tension in Aria's body was immediate. Her heart pounded, chest rising and falling in quick bursts. She could feel the sharp edge of her emotions cutting through the air.
"You keep saying these things like you know me. Like we—"
"I do know you," Selene interrupted, her voice steady, firm. There was no hesitation, only an undeniable truth. "Better than anyone."
"I don't remember any of that," Aria's words were thick, jagged. She shook her head, trying to force the pieces of her mind into place. "I don't want to."
"I do."
The silence that followed was crushing.
Aria clenched her fists at her sides, her body trembling as if it might splinter at any moment. "You don't get to tell me who I was."
Selene's gaze softened, but there was no pity in her eyes, only a quiet sorrow. "You used the space to store what mattered. Food. Water. Medicine. Even animals you found on the streets. You tried to keep everything alive while the world starved."
The words hit Aria like a tidal wave, each one knocking the breath from her chest. She had forgotten. She had forced herself to forget.
"But it wasn't enough," Selene continued. "It never was. Not when they came."
The words froze Aria in place. Her pulse quickened, throat tight. "Who?"
"The ones who wore white coats," Selene's voice darkened, the warmth gone, replaced by cold certainty. "The ones who called themselves 'hope.' They used infected bodies to bait survivors. They studied their reactions. We found them too early."
Aria's breath caught in her throat, her body shuddering. She didn't want to hear it. Didn't want to remember.
"They set a trap," Selene pressed on, her eyes narrowing as if the memory had been etched into her very soul. "And you stepped right into it."
Aria's mind reeled. She could feel the world spinning around her. "What happened? What do you mean?"
Selene took a step closer, her voice lowering, the air growing heavier. "They took you. And you never came back."
A cold silence enveloped the room. Aria backed away instinctively, as if distance could keep her safe from the weight of the truth that Selene was pulling back.
"You're lying," Aria's voice was barely a whisper. "This is some kind of fantasy, some trauma you've built up."
"It's not a fantasy," Selene said, her tone quiet but unwavering. "I remember the exact moment they took you. The sound of your voice when you screamed. The moment you disappeared from us."
"No," Aria breathed, shaking her head desperately. "I don't believe you."
Selene stepped forward, her gaze locking with Aria's. "You don't have to believe me. You already did it once."
The words stung—sharp, cutting through the defenses Aria had so carefully built.
Aria turned her back, her eyes catching her reflection in a cracked mirror. She didn't look like someone who'd died. She didn't look like someone who had lost everything.
She looked like a stranger.
A lost girl.
But inside her—there was something impossible. A place untouched by time. A place that obeyed only her.
Selene watched her, and for a brief, fleeting moment, their past was too much to bear. Too fragile to fix. But still, they stood in this fractured space, the weight of what had been between them undeniable.
Selene reached out, her hand brushing against Aria's shoulder.
"We find out what's left now," she said quietly.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, Aria felt the smallest spark of something—something that could be hope.