Hiding Places
The gallery walls were covered with prints—portraits, candids, flashes of joy and chaos. Julian walked slowly past them, but his mind wasn’t in the present.
Something had been gnawing at him ever since the day in the lift. A memory, faint but persistent. The feeling that this woman, this cold, impossible woman, wasn’t a stranger at all.
He found her in her office, alone, as always, hunched over a folder with the same severe concentration she gave everything. She didn’t acknowledge him.
julian
“I used to know a girl,”
julian
“She had a little mole behind her right ear. She hated it, but I said it looked like a star.”
julian
“We used to play hide-and-seek,” he continued, watching her. “She was better at hiding than anyone. Even when she was right in front of you, you couldn’t find her.”
Still nothing. Just the sound of paper turning.
julian
“I think you’re her.”
Selena hart
Slowly placed the file down, adjusting it precisely to the corner of her desk. When she spoke, her tone was flat. “You’re mistaken.”
julian
“You used to hide behind the big oak tree. You made me close my eyes and count to twenty—no peeking. I never did.”
She tilted her head slightly, almost amused.
Selena hart
“You were a terrible hider, Julian.”
julian
He blinked. “You do remember.”
Selena hart
Selena's eyes flicked to him, sharp and guarded. “I remember you being persistent. Clearly, nothing has changed.”
julian
Julian’s voice softened. “You were my friend.”
Selena hart
“I had no friends,” she replied coolly. “Not then. Not now.”
Selena hart
“Don’t rewrite my story just because you need it to make sense.”
julian
Julian stepped back, hurt flashing in his eyes. “Why won’t you just admit it?”
Liria smiled then—thin, cruel, almost pitiful.
Selena hart
“Because if I admit it, you’ll ask about what happened after. About why I vanished. About the things I had to forget.”
Her eyes darkened for a moment, something flickering behind them. Then, in an instant, it was gone.
Selena hart
“I don’t owe you that, You’re just the boy who lost.”
Julian stood there, stunned. He knew she remembered. He could feel it in the way her voice trembled ever so slightly, in the way her hand clenched the pen too tightly. But she wasn’t going to give it to him.
Because her silence wasn’t weakness
And she was still hiding—just like she always did.
Comments