her scent -+- miguel ohara -+- ~~~~Complete

5🕸️Contineud🕸️

A portal closed inside a small, sparsely furnished apartment, and Spiderluna stepped out into the dimly lit room. The faint hum of electronic devices was the only sound, aside from the occasional whir of a distant air conditioning unit.

Jessica had opened the portal for her, urging her to rest so that she'd feel a lot better. "You've been running on fumes for too long, Luna. You need a break," Jessica had insisted earlier, her tone as warm as it was firm.

"Calisto!?" A voice called out, snapping her from her thoughts. Calisto quickly switched out of her suit and into the casual, more familiar clothes she wore as Calisto Viviene Dawn. She adjusted her jacket, fixing her hair, before stepping into the living room.

A young man, just around her age, was standing by the doorway. His expression was unreadable, but there was a slight crease in his brow that suggested concern—or maybe something else. He was leaning casually against the doorframe, his arms crossed.

"Yes?" Her voice was steady, though a small hint of uncertainty lingered in her tone. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her, and it unsettled her more than she'd like to admit. She didn't like being seen, not really. Not for the person she was—just someone who had a lot of things they wanted to hide.

Carlos had been her roommate for almost a year now. Calisto hadn't really wanted a roommate. In fact, she'd rather lived alone, but her landlord had increased the rent dramatically, forcing her to make the choice of either finding a cheaper place or getting a roommate. Carlos had been a temporary solution, but it had worked out, for the most part.

"I—" Carlos opened his mouth, but his words faltered as if the thought wasn't fully formed in his head. "Where were you just now?"

Calisto raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected him to ask something like that. She hadn't expected him to even notice. She hadn't expected anyone to care about her movements at all. Not in a way that made her feel... exposed.

Carlos seemed to read the sudden flicker of vulnerability on her face. He straightened up, uncrossing his arms. "I needed to ask you something, but you were gone."

A knot tightened in Calisto's stomach, and she instinctively took a step back. It wasn't that she didn't care about Carlos; it was just that caring about someone meant revealing parts of yourself that she wasn't sure she could bear to expose. She couldn't quite tell if he was genuinely concerned or just trying to make small talk. Either way, it made her uncomfortable.

"...I was worried, Calisto. The window was open, and I thought something had happened again."

Calisto froze. The window? Open? Her heart thudded in her chest as an unsettling feeling crept in. "How do you mean, something happened again?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Carlos didn't meet her gaze right away. He took a deep breath, and then his eyes flickered over to the open window, almost as if he were debating how much he should say.

The truth hung in the air between them. Carlos's eyes softened as if he were trying to gauge the best way to word his concern. "You've been gone for a while. You sometimes... disappear like that. And every time you do, I get this feeling like something bad is going to happen. I'm just... I just want to know if you're okay, Calisto."

Her stomach churned. She couldn't quite tell if it was the unease of being exposed, or if it was something else—something that she had never fully allowed herself to explore. Something that made her think maybe Carlos cared more about her than she wanted him to. More than she wanted anyone to.

Her jaw tightened, and she let the silence settle around them for a moment.

"Carlos..." She trailed off, trying to compose herself, but she felt a strange knot building in her throat. "Tell me what you mean by that."

Carlos sighed, rubbing his temples. He looked conflicted. "It's just... I don't know how to explain it. I just... I don't want you to get hurt, okay?"

The words hit harder than she expected. She stared at him, the weight of his concern overwhelming her in ways she wasn't ready for. Was this what it meant to have someone care about you? To feel like you mattered enough to worry about? Calisto shook her head, trying to push the thoughts away.

"I'm fine, Carlos," she said, her voice a little sharper than she intended. "I'm always fine."

But even as she said it, she wasn't entirely convinced herself.

Carlos looked hurt, but he didn't push her further. Instead, he simply nodded, his eyes briefly meeting hers before looking away.

"I just—"

He left to the living room not saying a word in hopes of not hurting Calisto. 

But before she could say anything else to him from her room, a loud boom sounded.

Boom!

The floor beneath them vibrated as dust scattered across the room. Calisto's heart raced. She turned toward the sound, but the panic was already rising in her chest. The feeling of something being terribly, horribly wrong settled like a heavy weight in her gut.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath, before rushing toward the living room. Her footsteps felt heavy as she made her way into the hallway. What could it possibly be this time?

But as she reached the living room, the sight before her stopped her dead in her tracks.

Carlos was lying on the floor. His body was contorted unnaturally, pieces of debris scattered around him, his blood staining the carpet beneath him. The world around her seemed to slow down as she took in the scene.

"Oh, shit..." Calisto whispered, her voice shaking.

Tears pricked at her eyes, but she couldn't cry. Not now. Not when her mind refused to process what had just happened. Her heart felt like it was being crushed beneath the weight of the scene before her.

Her vision blurred, and it felt like the air around her was growing thicker, harder to breathe.

It was at that moment that everything seemed to go black.