Episode3:White Walls, Cold Silence
417 Words
Hospitals were supposed to feel safe.
But to Aria, this one felt like a cage.
The lights were too bright. The walls too white. Everything smelled of chemicals and fear. Machines beeped softly in the background, marking time like a quiet threat.
Lena lay still on the bed.
Bandages wrapped her head. Her skin was pale. Too pale. Tubes ran into her arms, her chest rising and falling only because the machines allowed it.
Aria stood at the foot of the bed, her hands clasped tightly together.
Sebastian stood on the other side.
They did not look at each other.
Hours passed like that. No words. Just silence stretched thin and painful between them.
Finally, Aria spoke. “She saved me.”
Sebastian didn’t respond.
“If she hadn’t screamed,” Aria continued softly, “I wouldn’t have known where the fire was coming from.”
Still nothing.
She turned to him then. “Sebastian.”
His eyes met hers for the first time since the fire.
Cold. Distant. Closed.
“She shouldn’t have been there,” he said flatly. “None of this should have happened.”
“That wasn’t her fault,” Aria replied.
His jaw tightened. “Everything connected to me gets burned.”
The words hit harder than she expected.
Aria stepped closer. “You went back into the fire for her. You almost died.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“Yes, it does,” she said. “It means you care.”
He looked away.
Caring was the one thing he refused to admit.
Victor Hale arrived later that night. He spoke quietly to Sebastian near the window. Aria didn’t mean to listen, but some words floated across the room.
“This wasn’t an accident.”
Sebastian stiffened.
“There are patterns,” Victor continued. “And a name.”
Sebastian’s voice was low. Dangerous. “Say it.”
“Jack Loosa.”
Aria felt a chill crawl up her spine.
Sebastian turned slowly and looked at her.
Not with anger.
With fear.
“You should never have come here,” he said.
The words felt like a door slamming shut.
Before Aria could respond, Sebastian walked out of the room.
And she didn’t follow.
Because for the first time, she understood something terrifying.
Sebastian wasn’t pulling away because he didn’t feel anything.
He was pulling away because he felt too much.
And that was when Aria noticed the man standing at the end of the hallway.
Watching her.
Smiling.
- Writer
