Chapter 30: Cold Skin, Warm Hearts, Facing What Comes Next The hum of the heater was the first thing Aria heard when she opened her eyes. Her lips still tingled from the kiss Selene had pressed on her before sleep. Then came the weight. Not just the blanket pulled up to her shoulders, or the soft cotton sheet twisted around her legs, but the warmth tucked in against her side. Well — warm was the wrong word. Selene never felt warm. Even now, curled around her like a second spine, Selene’s body was impossibly cold, and yet it didn’t make Aria shiver. Somehow, it steadied her. Aria blinked slowly at the ceiling. She could tell the electricity was still working — the glow of the lamp on the nightstand cast a soft golden light across the room. Outside the window, rain tapped a steady rhythm against the glass, but inside it was quiet. Safe. She exhaled, and it fogged just slightly in the air. Selene shifted behind her, just a small movement, but it sent a rush of awareness through Ar
Chapter 29: Leaving Behind Shadows, Finding Light in Unexpected Places The morning light filtered through the blinds, cutting thin lines across the apartment floor. Aria’s phone buzzed quietly on the counter, a reminder of an email she hadn’t yet answered and a notification from her messaging app blinking insistently. She ignored it for now, letting the hum of the refrigerator and the occasional siren from the street outside fill the space. Her laptop sat open on the desk, half - charged and forgotten, displaying a blank document where she had started notes for a sketch she never finished. A soft ping from a news alert brought her attention briefly, but she shut the tab, unwilling to let the world press in. The rain from last night had left the pavement slick, and the faint smell of wet asphalt drifted through the slightly cracked window. Her duffel bag leaned against the wall, partially packed, waiting. Clothes folded, sketchbooks stacked, a few small mementos carefully nestled i
Chapter 28: Hugging Strangers, Listening To Stories, Packing Life Behind Aria stayed quiet as they stepped into her apartment. The familiar hum of the refrigerator, the soft buzz of her phone notifications, the faint drip from the leaky window sill — it all felt heavier now, somehow sharper. She had no idea why her stomach twisted like this, her chest beating faster than normal. Selene moved beside her with the kind of calm precision that made the air feel denser, almost magnetic, and Aria couldn’t help the small shiver that ran down her spine. Selene stopped, turned, and without hesitation, wrapped her arms around Aria. The hug was firm, deliberate, carrying a sharp, cold edge — but strangely familiar — and it pulled something loose in Aria she didn’t know she had. She should have pulled away. She should have kept her distance. Rational thought told her to retreat, but her heart beat faster than her mind could process. Slowly, instinctively, she returned the hug, pressing closer,
Chapter 27: I Trusted Her Before I Knew Her Name The sky hadn’t changed, but Aria had. She stood barefoot in the apartment, staring at the tenth bloom. It had pushed through the cracks in her ceiling like it was meant to be there. Its petals were long, curled, slick with some kind of dew that shimmered when she moved her head. Ten of them now. Ten different blooms. Ten different colors, shapes, textures — none of them natural, none of them replicable. Each of them pulsing, quietly alive. She didn’t know what to feel. She counted them again like she was trying to prove it wasn’t real. One by the mirror. One behind the bookshelf. One blooming from the hallway tile. Two inside the wall by the kitchen. One growing at the foot of her bed. Another on the ceiling above her closet, slightly translucent. The eighth one was wedged into the corner of her bathroom mirror, and the ninth one, newly opened, was unfurling above the fridge like it had always been there. But the tenth — the tenth
Chapter 26: When Shadows Bloom and Mirrors Break the Silence The streets were slick with rain, reflecting neon and streetlights in fractured puddles. Phones buzzed in pockets, notifications piling up and disappearing as if the city itself couldn’t keep up. Aria’s own phone glowed, alerts from Jules, Niko, and unseen warnings scrolling too fast to read. Every flicker, every stutter of light, made her pulse tighten. Somewhere nearby, Mrs. Yune moved through alleys and abandoned corridors, a predator in human skin. The hunger inside her had sharpened to an edge that could cut through instinct, memory, and conscience alike. Faces she once knew passed too slowly for her control, each step a calculation, each movement precise, silent. Nothing escaped her notice, and nothing could stop her. Meanwhile, hidden in apartments across the city, the goddess lingered. Chains bit into her wrists, fluorescent lights glinting off her pale skin and pink hair, glowing faintly like embers. Her finge
Chapter 25: Don’t Trust The Fruit. Don’t Trust The Flowers Aria jolted awake, heart already racing like it had never stopped beating from some forgotten nightmare. Her breath came fast, damp hair clinging to her forehead. The rain outside was still going, soft now, more like static against the glass than an actual storm. Her apartment smelled like damp earth and charged air — like the ground right before lightning hits. She sat up slowly, wincing. Her limbs were stiff, like she’d slept with tension coiled too tight. She looked toward the window. The flowers were different. The four glowing red blossoms — the ones that had pulsed gently for weeks, always four, no more — had changed. There were six now. Two new petals had unfurled overnight. Quietly. Without warning. She blinked, breath catching. The fifth looked newer, less confident in its shape, but the sixth… The sixth pulsed stronger than the others. Brighter. And underneath that red light, the glass of the window had start