Chapter 20: She Doesn't See Me, She Sees a Weapon
Aria spotted her first.
The woman bolted around the corner of the pharmacy, hair wild, jacket ripped at the sleeve, sprinting like hell itself was on her heels. She barely saw them — just flung herself forward, eyes wide, breathing sharp and uneven.
Right behind her, a roamer tore after her with a broken gait, one leg dragging, mouth soaked in something dark.
"Damn —" Aria didn't even think.
She dropped her pack and sprinted forward, yanking the rusted crowbar from the side strap. The metal was cold in her hands, heavier than she remembered. She swung hard at the roamer's head — too wide. Missed. The force jolted up her arms, and she stumbled.
"Move!" Selene snapped, fast and calm.
Aria dropped low as Selene surged past her, blade flashing once — clean, controlled, brutal.
The roamer's head snapped sideways with a sickening crunch. It crumpled at the woman's feet, and Selene stood over it, chest rising, pale eyes still glowing faintly from adrenaline.
The woman gasped and collapsed onto the sidewalk. "Oh my god… oh my god, thank you…"
Aria straightened, heart pounding, crowbar still gripped tight. She looked at Selene — really looked — and something fluttered in her chest.
"That was badass," she breathed.
Selene flicked blood off the blade. "Try not to miss next time."
Aria laughed breathlessly. "Yeah, yeah. Show - off."
The woman just sat there, trying to catch her breath. She looked younger than Aria had expected — maybe late twenties. Her jeans were ripped at both knees, and she clutched a broken phone like it was going to save her.
"You good?" Aria asked gently.
She nodded. "Yeah. I — I think so. I thought I was dead."
"You would've been," Selene said flatly, already moving back toward the street. "Come on. Market's not far. But we've gotta move fast."
The woman stood and followed, quiet, hugging herself as they walked.
Aria fell into step beside Selene. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. You?"
"Arm's sore. But I'm good." She glanced behind them. "You think we should've let her come?"
"She's coming anyway."
The market was just a few blocks further — one of those independent ones tucked behind a café and a hardware store. The sign above it read "FOOD + MORE" in blocky red letters, half of which had burned out.
They didn't get far before the next wave came.
A low groan echoed from somewhere nearby, then another. Roamers.
Selene raised a hand, motioning for them to stop. "Five," she murmured. "No — six. Coming from the east."
The woman backed against the wall, breathing shallow. "I — I can't — I can't do another —"
"Then stay here," Selene said. "Don't make noise."
Aria had already pulled the crowbar again, heart thumping harder than before. "Wait — let me try something."
Selene turned to her, frowning. "What do you mean?"
"I felt it earlier," Aria said quietly. "That pull again. Like… it's closer now."
She stepped forward, past a splintered bench, eyes locked on the shadows where the roamers started to shamble into view. They were slow — first stage, still recognizable as human. But their eyes were wrong. Dead inside, like they knew what they'd lost.
Aria clenched her jaw, shoved the fear down, and let herself feel.
That space inside her — her power — it wasn't the same this time. It didn't come from the strange storage void. It was something else. Deeper. Sharper. Wet.
She focused — and the air shifted.
A thin mist spread from her palms. Then droplets. Then water twisted out of nowhere, forming around her fingers like it had been waiting for her.
Aria's breath caught.
The droplets stretched, elongated, became sharper.
She flung her hand forward.
The water shot out — narrow and fast like darts — and pierced the nearest roamer in the chest. Then another. Then three more in quick succession. The pressure built again. She threw her other hand forward and screamed without realizing it, and the water erupted from the pavement like broken glass, spiking into the sixth roamer and slamming it backward.
All six collapsed. Bodies still. Silence, thick and stunned.
Selene didn't move.
She just stared at Aria.
Aria's hands were still dripping, steam rising faintly from her fingers. Her whole body trembled, but she felt — alive. Overwhelmed. Lit from the inside.
"Oh my god," she whispered.
Selene stepped forward, slow. "That was your first time using water element?"
"I think so." Aria blinked at her hands, flexed her fingers. "It just… happened. It was like it already knew what I wanted."
Selene didn't speak right away. Then — softly, with something like awe — she said, "You had control. Real control. That was instinct."
Aria looked at her. "That was good, right?"
Selene nodded once. "That was incredible."
The woman stepped out from behind the bench — slow, cautious, staring at Aria like she wasn't sure what she'd just seen.
Aria gave her a small, tired smile. "Hey. You okay?"
The woman didn't answer.
She just stared.
Aria glanced at Selene, confused. Selene's gaze stayed trained on the woman, unreadable.
Eventually, the woman murmured, "I'll check for other supplies across the street. We can meet inside the market after."
Before Aria could say anything else, she was gone — ducking around the corner.
Aria frowned. "Was it something I said?"
"She's scared of you," Selene said plainly.
"What?"
Selene finally looked at her. "She saw what you did. She didn't see someone protecting her. She saw something… inhuman."
Aria's stomach twisted. "But I saved her."
"Doesn't matter. Power scares people when it looks like that."
Aria looked down at her hands again. "She see me as a monster."
Selene stepped closer, her voice low but firm. "She's wrong."
They didn't say more.
The market door was cracked open, the security gate halfway up like someone had started closing it and never finished. The interior was dim, lit by thin shafts of light leaking through broken roof panels.
Aria moved first.
Inside, the air was thick with mildew and the scent of old meat. Roamers shuffled between shelves, slow and quiet — six of them. Aria could tell these weren't like the ones before. Still early - stage. Still beatable.
Selene nodded to her, lifting her blade.
Aria responded with a slight smile and slipped the crowbar back into her belt.
This time, she didn't need it.
She focused again.
Water curled around her feet like it was waiting for her command.
She raised one hand — and it answered.
She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
The droplets moved fast, targeted, precise. Selene sliced cleanly through two roamers before Aria pinned the third and fourth to the shelves with sharp threads of water, piercing their skulls like needles.
The last two turned, teeth snapping — Aria flicked her wrist.
Done.
Silence.
Selene stood beside her, calm, unreadable. "You're getting faster."
Aria let the water fall. "It's like I've done it before. I know I haven't, but… my body knows it. Like muscle memory."
Selene tilted her head. "Maybe it remembers something you don't."
Aria didn't answer.
They moved through the store, clearing it slowly, watching every corner. It didn't take long. By the end, the floor was a mess of gore and old food, but the roamers were down, and they were both still standing.
Aria leaned against a shelf. "Okay. That was… kind of a lot."
Selene handed her a bottled water from a cracked fridge. "You handled it."
Aria drank deeply, eyes scanning the door. "She's not coming back, is she?"
"I wouldn't bet on it."
"She saw me like I wasn't human. I could feel it."
Selene didn't sugarcoat it. "She saw what she wanted to see. But I know what you are."
Aria met her eyes. "And what's that?"
Selene stepped closer, brushing a damp strand of hair out of Aria's face, her fingers lingering just a second longer than necessary.
"Someone learning to survive," she murmured, voice low and sure. "Someone dangerous… but only for the right reasons."
Aria gave a breathy laugh, soft but real. "You always know what to say."
Selene's thumb skimmed her cheekbone — a light touch, but it burned in the best way. "Only when I'm saying it to you."
Aria didn't move away. Didn't blink. "You flirt like it's breathing."
Selene's mouth tilted in a smirk. "Maybe it is. You make it easy."
"I think that's cheating."
"I think you like it."
Aria flushed, but didn't deny it. "You're a menace."
"I'm ice," Selene replied, eyes glittering, "but somehow you're the one melting me."
The air between them pulled tighter. No kiss. Just breath. Just space that felt like it was begging to be broken.
Aria's voice was barely above a whisper. "If I said I wanted to close the distance… would you stop me?"
Selene leaned in just enough to tease. "Not unless you asked me to."
Aria exhaled, lips parting — but didn't move.
They didn't kiss. Not this time.
But whatever passed between them was louder than mouths, heavier than silence. It settled in the air like static before a storm.
Then the city groaned.
The sound came from everywhere and nowhere at once — metal twisting, concrete shifting, like the buildings were breathing in.
The sky above cracked open, not with thunder, but light. Green and sharp-edged, bleeding into pink at the seams. It wasn't lightning. It was something older. Something watching.
Selene's hand drifted to the hilt at her hip. "Let's not give it a reason."
Aria's fingers dripped faintly again — her power reacting, unsettled, waiting. "It already has one."
They didn't look up.
They kept moving. Quiet. Armed. Aligned.
The city watched them from every shadow, every warped reflection. But Aria didn't flinch anymore.
She watched back.