Chapter 16: She Burned for the One Missing
The quarantine zone reeked of mold, smoke, and decay. Elara had smelled blood before — hot and fresh, or old and crusted — but this was different. This was metallic rot layered over asphalt, a scent she couldn't scrub out of her skin no matter how many showers she took in stolen water. Not that she'd had one in three days.
She adjusted her jacket and tugged the scarf higher over her mouth. Her boots scraped against cracked pavement as she walked up to the apartment. The one Aria used to live in.
Her heart pounded the second she pushed the door open.
Empty.
Again.
Same as yesterday. Same as the day before.
She'd ripped through every drawer, torn through closets, flipped cushions looking for a trace — anything. A note. A shirt. A scent. But the air inside was still. Cold. Not even a whisper of her bunny left.
Elara stood in the center of the living room, staring at the silent TV screen. Her mind played tricks on her — she could almost see Aria there, laughing on the couch, curled up with Piper, talking about the dumb movie they'd half - watched. The memory of her was everywhere, but the apartment was cold. Empty.
Her hand move at her side.
She was gone.
Aria was gone.
Elara didn't scream. Didn't cry. She just turned and left again.
The city was barely alive. Rubble and broken storefronts stretched out in all directions. Roamers shuffled down alleyways, twisted and twitchy. Elara hadn't known what they were at first. Just thought it was someone in pain, maybe wounded, maybe sick.
She learned fast.
The first one came out of nowhere — a figure stumbling from the shadows, body gaunt and ragged, more bone than flesh. Its jaw hung loose, crooked and unhinged, fingers curled like claws reaching out blindly. Elara froze, heart hammering in her chest. She'd never seen anything like this, never imagined it could be real outside of nightmares or horror stories.
"Hey!" she called, voice trembling but trying to hold steady. "Stop! Don't—"
The creature didn't respond. It didn't speak. It didn't even seem to hear her. Its head turned slowly toward her, eyes hollow, black pits with no recognition, no humanity left. Elara's breath hitched. Every instinct screamed to run, but her feet stayed planted.
Then she heard the screams.
From just beyond the alley, a guttural, awful sound that twisted her stomach. She looked in time to see another roamer tearing into a terrified man, teeth biting through skin, ripping flesh, dragging him down into the darkness. The man struggled, but it was useless. Once those teeth sank in, everything changed.
Elara's eyes widened as she watched the man convulse, skin paling and eyes rolling back. His body twisted and warped, bones cracking and shifting, as the roamer's curse took hold. The transformation was brutal — animalistic and terrifying. When it finished, there was no trace of the man left. Only a new monster, crawling, snarling, hungry.
The first roamer snarled and lunged at Elara, moving faster than she could react.
Her heart hammered in her ears. She stumbled backward, hands shaking, voice barely a whisper, "Please, don't… I don't want to hurt you."
But the creature didn't hesitate. It advanced, teeth bared, claws scraping against the pavement.
Panic surged through her veins. She wanted to scream, to run, to do something — anything — but her body froze in place, overwhelmed by fear and shock.
The world around her seemed to shrink to the pounding of her heartbeat and the wet, ragged breathing of the monster before her.
Her mind raced, searching for a way out, a chance to survive.
She backed away slowly, eyes locked on the creature, praying she wouldn't trip, praying for a miracle.
That night, everything she believed about safety and control shattered.
She realized the world had changed.
And she wasn't prepared for what came next.
It was instinct.
It was rage.
It was love.
Her hands lit up — literally. Fire burst from her palms like breath from a dragon's mouth. The roamer lit up with a scream, twisting into ash as she stumbled back, horrified.
She should've been terrified.
But she wasn't.
Her hands were warm. The cold in her chest had melted.
"Elara…", she whispered to herself. "You can protect her now."
It wasn't enough. Nothing would be until Aria was back in her arms, tucked under her chin, safe where she belonged.
So she stayed.
In the quarantine zone.
She wasn't supposed to be there. The barricades were meant to keep people out now, not in. But she didn't care. She broke through three checkpoints with a stolen pass and an old motorcycle that wheezed with every turn.
She searched every day. Neighborhood to neighborhood. Block to block. She rationed canned soup and protein bars. She slept on rooftops with a knife under her jacket and her phone clutched in her hand.
She tried calling. Again and again. But it never connected.
The signal was dead. Or something else was wrong.
She sat on a burnt - out bus and stared at the screen, thumb hovering over Aria's name. She tapped it again. Nothing.
Then she remembered.
Her old manager.
The smug bastard had blocked Aria's number before everything went to hell. He'd said Elara needed "distance" to maintain focus on brand deals during the height of her fame.
She opened her settings and checked.
Blocked.
She unblocked it with shaking hands.
And the messages flooded in.
Elara's vision blurred.
48 texts. 9 missed calls. Dozens of photos.
All from Aria.
All unread.
Her heart cracked open like a rib cage.
She read them one by one.
"Hey. I'm safe. Just… scared."
"Don't know where you are. Miss you."
"I made egg rice today lol… wasn't as good without you."
"Still hoping you'll answer. Love you."
"Piper's with Dominic. I didn't know what else to do."
Her throat closed up. She blinked hard. She couldn't cry here. She had to keep going.
She scrolled further. There were other messages.
From someone named Jules.
She didn't know her.
But Aria did.
"Still checking in on her. I think she's holding it together."
"She misses you."
"Dom took Piper. It broke her a little."
"Wish I could help more."
Elara wanted to scream.
She didn't know these people.
But they knew her Aria.
They were near her. Closer than she was.
And she was stuck in this broken city, chasing shadows.
She threw the phone against the seat cushion and stood. Flames sparked under her skin again. Just small flickers. But enough to light the fury in her chest.
She turned and kept walking. She wouldn't stop.
Not now.
Not when Aria had been alone all this time.
Somewhere else in the city, completely unaware of the ache in Elara's chest, Aria was smiling.
Her lips were on Selene's. Slow. Playful.
Their backs were pressed against a kitchen counter in some halfway - clean apartment. The windows were fogged. The floor was littered with gear and half - eaten peaches from a scavenged stash.
Selene kissed like she was afraid to break her, but Aria pushed back. Nipping at her lips, then kissing her again, moaning softly into her mouth.
"You taste like snow," Aria whispered between kisses.
Selene's fingers dug gently into her hips. Her breath was shaky. "More," she murmured. "I want more."
Aria smiled against her lips. "Then take it."
She didn't know what was happening out there.
She didn't know Elara was clawing her way through collapsed buildings and burning her way through roamers with hands that now sparked like kindling.
She didn't know Elara had just read all her messages in one flood of heartbreak.
She didn't know Elara had cried for the first time in weeks, sitting on a rooftop and whispering her name into the smoke - choked wind.
Elara had refused to leave the zone. Everyone else had evacuated weeks ago, but she stayed. Her old manager tried to reach her. PR teams sent automated messages. She didn't answer.
She wasn't leaving without her.
Not now.
She still kept the drawing Aria gave her years ago. A tiny bunny, drawn in pencil and shaded with little hearts around the ears. She found it folded between the pages of her old lyric notebook.
She carried it everywhere now. Taped it to the back of her phone.
It kept her going.
Sometimes she heard voices at night — girls whispering behind walls, families hiding behind barricaded doors. But no one ever matched Aria's voice.
Elara knew her too well.
She would know the moment she heard it.
She'd know the laugh. The hiccup. The soft way she said her name like it was sacred.
"Elara… sister Rara", she imagined. "You found me."
God, she needed that.
She burned just thinking about it.
In another part of the city, Aria lay curled on a salvaged couch, her head in Selene's lap, fingers tracing lazy shapes along her thigh. Her lips were pink from kisses, and she looked flushed. Happy.
Selene ran her fingers through her hair. "You're gonna make someone jealous."
Aria blinked. "Who?"
Selene didn't answer.
Back on the ground level, Elara was walking through an abandoned school. Her steps echoed in the halls. Her light flickered over posters still taped to the walls: "Spring Formal Postponed," "Wash Your Hands," "We're In This Together."
She searched every room.
Some still had desks tipped over, books scattered, drawings hanging from corkboards. She found a girl's shoe in the gym. A pink scrunchie near the stairs. A half - eaten bag of chips.
But no Aria.
She pressed her hand to her chest, willing her element to light again.
It sparked. Just a flicker.
Not enough to kill anything.
But enough to remind her she wasn't powerless anymore.
She made her way back out to the street as the sun dipped low behind the broken skyline. Shadows stretched out long. She checked her phone.
Still no signal.
But she'd read the messages.
She knew Aria had been trying to reach her.
And she wasn't going to stop now.
Her little bunny was out there.
Maybe smiling.
Maybe crying.
But still hers.
And Elara would burn the world to find her.