Chapter 31: Fractures Beneath
Day 4 of the Apocalypse
The world outside the apartment was silent. No distant screams, no pounding feet of the living, no rustle of the undead shuffling in the streets. It was an unsettling kind of quiet, one that pressed in from all sides, thick with tension.
Aria stood by the window, staring out at the city that had crumbled around them. The emptiness seemed to echo, mocking the very idea that things could return to normal. The streets were eerily still, nothing but shattered glass and debris where once life had thrived. The quiet, suffocating in its intensity, wrapped around her like a second skin.
But the silence between them—between Aria and Selene—was louder than the city ever could be.
The atmosphere in the apartment was heavier than it had been the day before. Selene was moving in a calculated way, packing their things with precision, but something was different. The same cold efficiency had a sharper edge today, like every movement carried the weight of something unsaid.
Aria's fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. She glanced over at Selene, who was adjusting her weapons, focused, but distant.
Why did it feel like there was a wall between them now?
Aria didn't understand it. The night before, she had felt something shift between them—something fragile but electric, their kiss not just a shared moment of survival but something deeper, more consuming. It had burned in her, a reminder that they were bound in this chaos together, more than just allies, more than just survivors.
But now? Now it felt like that connection was slipping through her fingers, like sand in the wind.
"Selene," Aria said, her voice uncertain. She wanted to reach out, to ask the question that had been burning at the back of her mind. Are we okay? But it felt too raw, too fragile to ask, like it would shatter the tense quiet between them.
Selene didn't answer immediately. Her fingers brushed over the blade at her side, eyes focused elsewhere. When she spoke, her voice was even, too even.
"We're alive," she said. The words didn't comfort Aria. They were too simple, too final.
Aria bit her lip, not sure what to say next. Her thoughts were a whirlwind, but all of them circled around one core truth—Selene was pulling away.
"I didn't ask if we were alive," Aria said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. She stepped closer, but Selene didn't acknowledge the movement. "I asked if we're okay."
Selene froze. The briefest flicker of something passed across her face—something unreadable. But she didn't turn to look at Aria. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed ahead, her jaw tense.
"We don't have time for this," Selene said shortly, her voice flat.
Aria's chest tightened. She wanted to press, wanted to push past the wall Selene had built between them, but she could see it—the cold detachment in her eyes, the way she held herself, like she was already stepping away from whatever it was they had shared.
But Aria couldn't let it go. Not this time. Not when something so fragile had been born between them the night before.
"We do have time, Selene. We can't keep pretending this is just… survival. Not when you—" Aria stopped herself, the words too heavy to say out loud. She didn't know how to explain it, but she knew there was something deeper between them—something dangerous and electric and alive. But it was fading now, slipping like water through her fingers.
Selene's hand tightened around her weapon, the muscles in her arm straining. "This isn't the time, Aria."
The words were cold, harsh, and they cut through the air between them like a blade. And yet, Selene's voice trembled just slightly, a crack in the armor she had built around herself.
Aria wanted to say more, wanted to beg for an answer, but the words died in her throat. She had seen this before—the way Selene shut down, the way she buried everything beneath layers of steel and silence. Aria had learned to read her, to understand that the words left unsaid were often the most important ones.
But now?
Now, there was something too cold about Selene's silence, something too heavy in the air between them.
Aria stepped back, her heart pounding in her chest, as if the very space between them had become unbearable. "Fine," she said, her voice raw. "We'll do this your way. But I won't keep pretending that nothing's wrong."
Selene didn't answer. She didn't have to.
They packed in silence.
⸻
They moved through the city again, the broken streets swallowing their footsteps, the emptiness of the world stretching out in front of them. The buildings were cracked and skeletal, remnants of what had once been a thriving city now reduced to rubble. The occasional faint sound—distant screams, the shuffle of the undead, the grinding of metal on metal—served as a constant reminder of what they were up against.
But it was the silence between them that felt like the real danger.
⸻
"Selene…" Aria murmured as they paused in an alley, scanning the area for any threats. She couldn't keep ignoring it. The ache in her chest had become a constant companion, gnawing at her. She needed answers. She needed to know what was happening between them. "You can't just keep shutting me out."
Selene turned toward her then, her face cold and unreadable. Her eyes were hard, but there was something in the way she looked at Aria that sent a chill down her spine.
"Shut you out?" Selene's voice was low, dangerous. "I'm doing what I need to do to survive. To keep you alive."
Aria took a step closer, her eyes searching Selene's face. "Then why does it feel like you're the one trying to kill us both?" she whispered.
The words hung in the air, heavy and sharp. Selene didn't move. Her gaze didn't soften. But Aria saw it—the brief flicker of something behind Selene's eyes. Something she had been trying so hard to hide.
Something that looked a lot like fear.
⸻
By the time they made it back to their safe house, the tension between them had escalated. They moved like strangers through the familiar space, like the bond they had shared in the past few days was now a distant memory. The weight of their silence pressed down on them, suffocating in its intensity.
Aria sank into a chair, exhaustion heavy in her bones, but her mind was still racing. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to break—something between them.
And she didn't know if she could survive it.