Chapter 15: When the Door Cracks Open
Selene woke up the second she realized she was alone.
The blanket Aria had been curled under was still bunched on the floor, warm in the center, but empty. The couch beside it sat silent, the air already colder without her. Selene was on her feet before her mind could finish forming a thought. Her coat slipped off the hook with a practiced flick. The world outside the studio windows was pale, gray with early light, and buzzing with that eerie stillness cities got just before they tipped into chaos.
She scanned the room. No signs of struggle. No blood. No broken glass. Just the soft imprint of Aria's presence fading like a breath on cold glass.
Selene closed her eyes and exhaled once, sharp. Aria had wandered. Alone.
She moved quickly, steps silent, slipping down the warped stairs of the old studio and into the half - lit streets. Her breath clouded in the air, not because it was cold, but because it was wrong. The temperature was fluctuating in pockets, thick with something that didn't feel entirely natural. Selene's fingers twitched toward the knife strapped under her coat, but she didn't draw it — not yet.
Instead, she listened.
And then she heard it.
A faint crackle, like electricity splitting against stone. Not from a wire. Not from any working grid. This was older. Raw.
The pulse.
She moved toward it.
Past a car flipped sideways in the gutter. Past a shattered billboard still playing a glitchy fashion ad in silence. The city was still pretending to function, but the seams were splitting. She passed two roamers shambling near a collapsed awning. She didn't stop. Didn't even breathe differently. They didn't notice her. Too slow. Too fresh. Not what she was worried about.
Then she turned a corner and froze.
Aria stood in the middle of the intersection. Barefoot. Her hair tangled. The light hit her like a lens flare, illuminating the curve of her back, the soft rise of her breath, the way her hands were outstretched like she was trying to feel the heartbeat of the world itself.
A fracture had opened in the pavement before her.
Thin. Vertical. Like a crack in glass that hadn't shattered — yet.
And from it, golden light leaked upward, humming faintly, pulsing in time with Aria's breath.
Selene didn't speak. Didn't move.
She knew better than to interrupt something sacred.
Aria's eyes were glazed over, not with sleep, but something deeper. Her lips were moving. No sound came out.
Then, suddenly, she dropped to her knees.
Selene rushed forward.
The second she touched her, Aria gasped. Her body jerked like something hot had snapped inside her chest.
"Selene —" she rasped, grabbing her shirt like it was the only real thing in the world. "What was that — what's happening to me —?"
Selene pulled her close, both arms wrapping around Aria's waist like she was the only anchor left in a world that wouldn't stop shifting. "It's trying to reach you again."
Aria's breathing hitched, sharp and uneven. "What is?"
"The door," Selene murmured. "The one you keep locked."
She could feel it now. The pull. The pressure under her skin. Like something hot was pushing up from inside her chest, blooming slow and hungry.
Selene's voice dropped lower. "Your bloodline. It's waking up. All of it. The succubus part too." She pressed her forehead gently to Aria's. "You feeling it? That heat? That ache?"
Aria clutched her tighter, nails digging slightly into Selene's back. "I don't understand —"
"You don't need to." Selene's voice was calm, steady. "Just stay with me. Especially when the craving hits. It will. You'll want things — feel things — like hunger, but deeper. I can help you manage it."
Aria blinked through the haze. "How?"
"My body temperature," Selene whispered. "It can ground you. Cool you down when it gets bad. I won't do anything you don't want. I promise."
"But the heat…" Aria's voice cracked. "That thing I saw — felt — it wasn't just from you. It was… it felt like Elara."
Selene paused. Her jaw clenched, just for a second. Then she gave a small, crooked smile. "Yeah. I know. The kind of heat only she can trigger. That doesn't mean I like it. But I get it."
Aria's eyes filled with panic. "I don't want to be a monster," she whispered. "I don't want to use people. I don't want to use you. I — I'm not like that. I'm not… I'm not lewd or —"
She broke, voice folding in on itself as the tears came hard and sudden. "I'm not that kind of person. I don't want to lose who I am."
Selene cupped her face and kissed her.
Soft. Slow. Reassuring.
Then again — more deliberate this time, lips lingering against hers.
"No, you're not," Selene said, brushing a thumb over her cheek. "If anyone's the problem, it's me. I'm the one lusting after you like some unhinged maniac. And I'm not even the one with succubus blood."
Aria flushed hard, cheeks glowing up to her ears.
Selene grinned at her reaction and pulled her back into a hug. "Stay with me, okay? We'll figure this out. Together."
Aria clutched her tighter. "I don't understand —"
"You don't have to. Just stay with me."
Behind them, the golden crack flared once — then vanished. Like it had never existed.
Aria went limp in her arms.
Not unconscious. Just overwhelmed.
Selene sat with her in the center of the street, holding her like she might vanish again. She whispered things that didn't matter — little things. A humming noise she remembered from Aria's laugh. The way her socks never matched. The kind of coffee she used to make when no one else was awake yet.
Eventually, Aria's hands loosened around her coat. She pulled back slowly, her lips trembling.
"Was that real?" she whispered.
Selene nodded. "It always is."
"I — I don't know who I am."
"You don't have to," Selene said. "Not yet."
Aria shivered. "But it knew me. That thing. That light. It looked at me like I should remember something."
Selene brushed the hair from her face gently. "It's part of you. Like breath. Like blood."
"Is that why you keep looking at me like you lost something?" Aria asked softly.
Selene blinked.
Aria offered a crooked smile. "I'm not stupid."
"No," Selene said. "You're not. You're just not ready to remember how much you've already given."
"I'm scared of it," Aria admitted.
Selene hesitated. "So was I."
Then, slowly, Aria leaned in. "But not of you."
Selene's breath caught. Aria's lips brushed hers in a kiss that didn't need to prove anything. It was short, quiet. Real.
Selene smiled faintly. "We should go before those roamers double back."
"Right," Aria said, blushing. "Also… I may have left the hotel door unlocked."
Selene groaned. "We're gonna have a talk about that."
"Please do. I'm terrible at apocalypse etiquette."
They got up, heading toward a nearby alley that looped back to the hotel without cutting through the main street. On the way, Selene slipped something into Aria's coat pocket.
"What's that?" Aria asked.
Selene smirked. "Insurance."
Aria reached in and pulled out a folded photo. Her fingers brushed over it, stunned.
It was her.
Younger. Smiling. Standing in front of a mural of a cracked world stitched with gold.
"I don't remember this."
"I do," Selene said quietly. "You were laughing. Someone told you the mural looked like your heart."
Aria blinked hard.
The world felt too close.
Too heavy.
They kept walking, side by side, boots scuffing against loose gravel and burnt leaves. Eventually, they reached the hotel again — only to find the lobby door broken open.
Selene tensed, hand on her knife.
But inside, nothing stirred.
Just silence and a faint, rhythmic creak from a hallway vent.
They slipped back up the stairs. Aria re-locked the hotel door properly this time, rolling her eyes when Selene looked impressed.
"I can learn," she muttered.
"Do it faster," Selene teased. "Time's thinning."
They paused at the top of the stairs, back in the room where everything had started the night before. Aria picked up her old phone from the nightstand. It still had one bar of service. Just enough.
She opened a message thread with Jules.
Aria: If you don't hear from me again, just know I'm okay. Don't trust anyone. Not even the ones who smile. We'll meet again. I'll bring the stories. Stay alive for me. Love you, always — just as you are. Tell Niko to keep the knife I gave him close. It matters now.
She hit send.
The screen dimmed.
The phone buzzed once — message delivered.
Then everything went dark.
The lights blinked off. The hum of the fridge died. Outside, a grid-wide pop echoed down the block like a fuse box exploding in slow motion.
Selene turned to the window.
The city had finally fallen silent.
No more flickering billboards. No more neon warnings. No more pretending.
Just shadow.
Just the beginning of what came next.
Aria stood at her side, her fingers grazing Selene's. "Did the world just end again?"
"No," Selene said, sliding her hand fully into Aria's. "It just remembered how to begin."
They stood in the dark.
Together.
Uncertain.
But no longer alone.