Chapter 8: The Memory She Never Had
Aria didn't speak much the next morning.
She stared out the broken gallery windows, watching as a school bus sat in the middle of the road—engine still warm, doors wide open. There were no children. No driver. Just quiet.
The city still hadn't admitted it was dying.
But Aria could feel it now.
Something was wrong with the world.
And something was wrong with her.
⸻
"I still don't believe you," Aria said finally.
Selene, sitting on a cracked stool with her arms crossed, didn't answer right away.
"You say I… died?" Aria's voice shook. "That I sacrificed myself for people I don't even remember?"
Selene nodded once.
"Then where are they?" Aria snapped. "Where's the proof?"
Selene's jaw tensed. "Gone. For now."
"And you expect me to trust you?"
"No," Selene said quietly. "I expect you to survive."
⸻
Aria stood, pacing, frustration leaking from her every movement.
"You say I had some kind of power. That I stored people. But that's impossible. That doesn't exist."
Selene tilted her head. "Then how did you vanish yesterday?"
Aria stopped.
She remembered the alley. The breathless panic. The space that swallowed her.
She remembered the feeling—like the world bent itself to her will.
She said nothing.
⸻
Selene stood up slowly. Walked to her.
"You were always powerful," she said softly.
"Even before the elements came. But you never got the chance to unlock them."
Aria blinked. "What do you mean?"
Selene's gaze darkened.
"They found us too soon."
"…Who?"
Selene's voice dropped to a whisper.
"The scientists. They'd been experimenting with infected corpses. Trying to weaponize the virus. They lured us in. Used bait. Children. Pets. Sounds we couldn't ignore."
Aria's breath hitched.
"You went first," Selene said, eyes distant now. "You always did."
She took a step closer, voice unraveling.
"They wanted to see what your body could do. How much it could hold. How far your power stretched."
Aria felt sick.
"You knew something was wrong. You told me to run. Told all of us to go."
Selene's fists clenched. "But I didn't. I stayed."
A pause. Then—
"And I watched you die."
⸻
Silence stretched between them, raw and terrible.
Aria finally whispered, "Why do I feel like you're lying?"
Selene laughed once, bitter and quiet. "Because you don't remember what love felt like. Not yet."
She turned away before Aria could see her eyes.
"Not yet," she whispered again.