chapter 4 : Finding Her Again.
2025 Words
Three days later I couldn't find her.
I tried everything. Every door. Every hallway. Every staircase. The building stayed normal. Regular. Like it was playing dumb.
It was driving me crazy.
Monday night I'd walked through every floor twice. Nothing. Just offices and apartments and regular boring spaces.
Tuesday I tried at different times. Six pm. Eight pm. Midnight. The building wouldn't shift. Wouldn't change. The Anamnex stayed hidden.
Wednesday night I sat in the eighth floor hallway for two hours waiting for something to happen. The lights stayed normal. The doors stayed regular. No shadows moved. No voices spoke.
By Thursday I was frustrated and tired and starting to wonder if I'd imagined everything.
"Maybe I'm losing it," I said to the empty hallway. "Maybe none of this is real."
No response. Just silence.
I went to my office and sat at my desk. Stared at my computer screen without really seeing it. My phone buzzed. Text from my assistant Rachel.
"Meeting with the investors tomorrow at 9am. Don't forget."
Right. The investors. I'd completely forgotten about them. They were important. Major funding deal. I should've been preparing.
Instead I'd spent three nights wandering through my building looking for impossible spaces and a woman made of memory.
My phone buzzed again. This time it was Marcus.
"You alive? Haven't heard from you in a week. Coffee tomorrow?"
I typed back. "Can't. Meeting."
"Saturday then. No excuses."
I didn't reply. Didn't know what to say. How could I explain where I'd been? What I'd been doing?
Marcus would think I'd lost my mind. And maybe I had.
I put my phone down and closed my eyes. Tried to think clearly.
What if the building was done with me? What if I'd seen all I was supposed to see? What if Selene had decided I wasn't worth the trouble after all?
That thought hurt more than it should've. I'd only really met her once. We'd barely talked. But the idea of never seeing her again made my chest feel tight.
"Selene," I said to my empty office. "If you can hear me, I'm still here. I'm still trying. Please."
Nothing happened.
I stayed in my office until almost three in the morning. Finally gave up and went home.
Friday was worse. The meeting with the investors went badly. I couldn't focus. Missed questions. Had to ask people to repeat themselves.
"Are you feeling alright?" one of them asked.
"Fine. Just tired."
They exchanged looks. Not good looks. Concerned looks.
After they left Rachel came into my office. "Mr. Moreno, what's going on? That meeting was important."
"I know."
"You seemed somewhere else entirely. Like you weren't even in the room."
She was right. I hadn't been in the room. Not really. My mind was in impossible hallways and courtyard spaces and circular rooms where a woman with sad eyes held my hand.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'll do better."
Rachel looked at me for a long moment. Then her expression softened. "Is this about whoever you're seeing? The person who's been making you happy?"
"I can't find her."
The words came out before I could stop them. Rachel's eyebrows went up.
"Oh. Did you two have a fight?"
"No. Nothing like that. I just... can't reach her right now."
"Have you tried calling? Texting?"
I almost laughed. How do you call someone who only exists in memory spaces? "It's complicated."
"Most relationships are." She smiled gently. "Maybe give it some time. Space. Sometimes that helps."
But I didn't want to give it space. I wanted to see Selene. Wanted to hear her voice. Wanted to know she was okay.
That night I went back to the building early. Six o'clock. Before it was even fully dark.
I went to the seventh floor. The supply room where I'd found the courtyard before.
Opened the door. Just cleaning supplies.
Tried the eighth floor hallway. Normal length. Right number of doors.
Went to every floor. Every door. Every corner.
Nothing.
I ended up back in my office. Defeated. Exhausted.
"I give up," I said out loud. "If you don't want to see me anymore, fine. I get it. I'm just some guy who got curious. You don't owe me anything."
I meant it as surrender. As acceptance.
But it came out sounding hurt.
I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall. Too tired to move. Too frustrated to think straight.
"I'm sorry," I said quieter. "Whatever I did wrong, I'm sorry. I just want to know you're okay."
The building stayed silent.
I must've dozed off because when I opened my eyes it was dark outside. Really dark. The city lights glowed through my windows but the office itself was black.
I checked my phone. Almost eleven.
I'd been asleep for hours.
And I wasn't alone.
Someone was sitting in my desk chair. I could see their silhouette against the window.
My heart jumped. "Selene?"
"Hi." Her voice. Warm and a little sad. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't. I mean, you did but I don't care." I stood up fast. Too fast. Got dizzy. "Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere."
"I know. I've been watching you search." She turned the chair toward me. I could see her better now. Same white dress. Same dark hair. Same sad beautiful face. "I'm sorry I made you worry."
"Why couldn't I find you?"
"Because I was hiding." She stood up and walked toward me. "Not from you exactly. From what seeing you means."
"I don't understand."
"The more real I become, the more I remember. My life before. My family. My friends. Everything I lost when I became this." She gestured at herself. "It hurts, Lyric. Remembering hurts."
I wanted to reach for her but wasn't sure if I should. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's not your fault. It's actually good in a way. I was forgetting myself. Fading. You brought me back. Made me remember who I was." She stopped a few feet away from me. "But remembering means feeling all the things I lost. And that's hard."
"So you were hiding from the pain."
"Yes. And from you. Because you make it worse."
That stung. "I make it worse?"
"Not in a bad way. You make everything more intense. More real. When you're around I feel everything stronger. The good and the bad. It's overwhelming sometimes."
I understood that. Kind of. "So what do we do?"
"I don't know. This is new for me too." She looked down at her hands. "I've spent almost forty years being nothing. Feeling nothing. Just existing. And now suddenly I'm feeling everything and I don't know how to handle it."
"We can figure it out together."
"Can we? Really?" She looked up at me. "You have a whole life out there, Lyric. Work. Friends. Responsibilities. I can't ask you to keep coming back here every night just because I'm lonely and confused."
"You're not asking. I want to come back."
"But for how long? Eventually you'll have to choose. Your real life or this impossible thing with me."
There was that word again. Choose. Marcus had said something similar. About making sure the relationship was worth the cost.
"Selene." I took a step closer to her. "I spent twenty-seven years living a life that looked good on paper but felt empty inside. And then I found this place. Found you. And for the first time everything feels real. Feels important."
"That's sweet but it's not practical."
"I don't care about practical."
"You should. Your assistant is worried about you. Your investors think something's wrong. Your friend keeps texting you. You're letting your real life fall apart."
"How do you know about all that?"
"I told you. I've been watching. The building sees everything that happens inside it. And I'm part of the building." She looked sad. "I don't want to be the reason you lose everything you've worked for."
"You're not. I'm choosing this. Choosing you."
"You barely know me."
"Then let me get to know you better. Stop hiding. Talk to me."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she walked closer until we were maybe a foot apart. "You really mean that? You want to know me? Even knowing it means dealing with all my confusion and pain and mess?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you're the first person who's ever made me feel like I'm not alone. And I think maybe I do the same for you."
Her eyes got shiny. "You do. You really do."
"Then stop hiding. Let me in."
She reached out and took my hand. Her fingers were warm. Real. Solid.
"Okay," she said quietly. "I'll try."
We stood there holding hands in my dark office. The city glowed beyond the windows. The building hummed around us.
"Can I ask you something?" I said.
"Anything."
"What made you decide to come find me tonight? After hiding for three days?"
She smiled a little. "I heard you apologizing. Saying you'd give up if I didn't want to see you anymore. And I realized I was being stupid. Pushing away the one person who actually sees me because I was scared." She squeezed my hand. "I don't want to push you away, Lyric. I want the opposite."
"Good. Because I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She stepped closer and put her arms around me. Hugged me. Actually hugged me.
I froze for a second. Surprised. Then I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back.
She was warm and solid and real. Not a ghost. Not a shadow. A person. A real person who existed in impossible spaces but was somehow in my arms right now.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"For what?"
"For not giving up. For keeping looking. For caring enough to be worried." She pulled back a little to look at me. "Nobody's cared about me in a very long time."
"Well I care now. Get used to it."
She laughed. Soft and genuine. "I think I can do that."
We stayed like that for a while. Just holding each other. Being close. Being real.
Eventually she said, "I should go. You need sleep. And you have work tomorrow."
"I don't care about work."
"You should. It's important. Your life out there is important." She stepped back. "But I'll be here tomorrow night. And the night after. I promise. No more hiding."
"You sure?"
"Yes. I'm sorry I made you worry. I won't do it again."
"Good." I caught her hand before she could leave. "Your name. Selene. I like saying it."
She smiled. "I like hearing you say it."
"Then I'll say it a lot. Selene. Selene. Selene."
She laughed again. "Okay, okay. I get it."
I pulled her in for one more hug. Quick. Then let her go.
She walked toward the door. Stopped. Looked back. "Goodnight, Lyric."
"Goodnight, Selene."
She stepped through the door and vanished. The space where she'd been standing looked empty. Normal. Like she'd never been there at all.
But I could still feel the warmth of her hug. Still smell whatever she smelled like. Something clean and old and familiar.
I sat down at my desk and pulled out my phone. Added to my notes.
Things I know about Selene:
- She hides when things get overwhelming
- Remembering her past hurts
- I make everything more intense for her
- She doesn't want to ruin my life
- She cares about me
- She's warm when she hugs
- She promised not to hide anymore
- I'm falling for her harder every day
I stared at that last line.
Yeah. I was falling. Hard. Fast. Completely.
For a woman who existed in impossible spaces and was made of memory and shouldn't be real but somehow was.
And I didn't care how crazy that was.
She was real to me. That was all that mattered.
I saved the note and finally went home to get some sleep.
Tomorrow I'd deal with work. With investors. With real life.
But tonight I'd seen Selene again. And that made everything else worth it.
- Writer
