CONVERSATIONS WITH CRACKS
742 Words
Chapter Four - Conversations with Cracks
The sound of dripping water is louder than my thoughts.
That's how my morning starts.
Selene isn't in the hallway today. No soft shuffle of her shoes. No nervous glances at the clock. I check my watch-it's not ticking. Great. Either time's broken or I am.
The clinic's too quiet, as if someone paused the world mid-sentence. But the lights are still flickering above my desk like they're trying Morse code.
---
I'm halfway through scribbling into Selene's file (still mysteriously empty except for one paperclip and my handwriting), when Chris strolls in with his usual smirk.
"Hey, Doctor Time Travel," he grins. "Back from the Twilight Zone yet?"
I blink. "What?"
"You're always staring into walls like they're going to answer you."
Fair enough. Sometimes I do. The walls know things.
---
Selene finally appears-holding a banana. She walks in as if she's in a sitcom and says, "Doctor, this banana's more stable than your diagnosis."
I nearly choke on air.
She's teasing again. But behind that playful tone, her eyes scan the clinic like she's memorizing it for the last time.
"Do you always walk around with fruit as a coping mechanism?" I ask.
"Only when I'm not allowed knives," she grins.
There's something so off-kilter about her it makes the air shift. Like she exists slightly to the left of reality.
She sits down across from me and places the banana on the table like it's part of the session.
"Dreams?" I ask.
"I saw a hallway," she says slowly. "With mirrors. And someone was whispering my name from inside one."
Her voice gets lower. "And when I touched the mirror, it was warm. Like skin."
I write it down. But the pen ink smudges into a Rorschach of questions.
"Did you follow the voice?" I ask.
"No," she says. "I ran. I think I used to follow voices, but now I just... run."
"Smart," I nod. "Voices in mirrors rarely lead to puppies and rainbows."
She snorts. "Finally, some medical honesty."
I flip the page. Her file still refuses to keep ink.
Then she says, "I think this place is lying to you."
I pause. "What?"
"This clinic," she gestures around. "It's pretending to be real."
My laugh is nervous. "We all are."
"No," she insists. "It's like... it knows you're watching, so it behaves."
"Like a very guilty cat?"
She smiles, but her eyes shimmer serious.
Selene leans forward, her voice barely a whisper. "Have you ever wondered why there's no receptionist here?"
I blink.
"Why the same magazines have been on the table since the first day?"
I feel a shiver rise.
She taps the desk. "Everything looks right. But it feels like a dream someone else is having."
I push away the file and look around.
She's right.
Why is no one else ever here? Where is everyone?
---
I ask Chris later. "Receptionist's on leave," he says without looking up from his phone.
"For a week?"
"Or a year." He shrugs. "Time's fake."
Sometimes I want to shake him.
---
The next day, I catch Selene talking to the mirror in the hallway. Her voice is soft, like a lullaby to someone trapped inside.
When she notices me, she steps away and quickly wipes a tear.
"You okay?" I ask.
"Yeah," she says. "Just talking to my reflection."
I look at the mirror. There's a second fingerprint next to hers.
"You think we're being watched?" I ask.
"I think we're being remembered," she replies.
Her words echo.
Poetic lines you can use for reels:
"This place behaves only when you're looking."
"Time is a polite lie told by broken clocks."
"Mirrors don't show you who you are, they show you what you're trying not to forget."
"I think we're being remembered... and that's what's terrifying."
---
Later, Chris laughs at me for pacing.
"Dude, it's just a building."
"Is it?" I ask.
He frowns. "No clue. I've never been to the third floor. Elevators don't work."
"There's a third floor?"
We both stare at the ceiling.
"I dare you to try the stairs," he says.
I don't.
---
That night, I dream.
I'm standing in front of a mirror with no reflection.
But someone is on the other side.
Knocking.

When I wake up, I find a sticky note on my desk.
It says only:
"Ask Selene what she forgot."
And I don't remember writing it.
---
- Writer
