Crimson Bloom

Chapter 9: What She Left Behind

The sky was pale and cloudless, but the world felt like it was holding its breath.

Aria stood in the middle of the gallery, arms crossed tight across her chest. The room still smelled like old oil paint and dying rain.

Selene leaned against a rusted windowsill, watching the street with quiet calculation. She hadn't said much since sunrise.

Finally, Aria broke the silence.

"I went back in."

Selene didn't turn. "Back into what?"

Aria swallowed. "That place. The… space."

She hesitated.

"It's not a dream, is it?"

⸻

Selene finally looked at her, eyes unreadable. "No. It's yours."

Aria glanced down at her hands.

"I brought food into it," she said slowly. "A bag of fruit. And when I came back hours later—it was still fresh. Untouched."

"Time doesn't move there," Selene said. "It's a dead pocket."

"But only for things," Aria added. "Animals too. But… not people."

Selene nodded once. "Only you can enter."

Aria's voice dropped. "So I'm the only one who gets to be safe."

⸻

Selene turned around, finally meeting her gaze. Her voice was gentler now.

"You always hated that."

"Hated what?"

"Being the only one allowed to survive."

⸻

Aria stiffened.

"You keep saying these things like you knew me. Like we—"

"I did know you," Selene cut in. "Better than anyone."

"I don't remember any of that," Aria snapped.

"I do."

Aria's hands trembled.

Selene took a breath.

"You used that 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."

Aria flinched.

"But you couldn't save us. Not when they came."

"Who?"

Selene's eyes turned cold.

"The ones who wore white coats and called themselves hope. They used infected bodies to bait survivors. To study reactions. We found them too early."

⸻

Selene stepped closer.

"They wanted to know how far your power went. They set a trap. And you—"

She stopped.

Aria whispered, "What?"

"You stepped into it. And never came back."

⸻

The gallery felt too small. Aria backed away.

"You're lying. This is some kind of trauma fantasy—"

"It's the truth," Selene said, quietly but firmly. "I remember the exact moment they took you."

"I don't believe you."

"You don't have to," Selene said. "You already did it once."

⸻

Silence. Aria turned away, staring at her reflection in a fractured mirror.

She didn't look like someone who'd died.

She looked ordinary. Young. Confused.

But inside her—

a space that obeyed only her will, frozen in time, untouched by the dead.

⸻

Selene watched her.

And thought of the Aria who bled out in her arms, whispering,

"Just keep them alive."