Phantom Pain
The wind cut across her skin as she rushed down the street, her breath fogging in the night air.
The painting had shaken something loose.
Not just the image it was how it felt.
Like it belonged to her.
She reached her apartment, slammed the door behind her, and collapsed against it. Her fingers trembled as she pulled off her coat, but when her hand brushed her shoulder blade she winced.
A sharp, sudden ache bloomed in her back.
Not a pulled muscle.
Not something new.
It felt… old.
Buried.
She twisted in front of the mirror, pulling her shirt aside. Nothing. No bruises, no marks just skin.
But the pain was real. Like she'd fallen.
Or been pushed.
She barely slept.
The next day, she walked through the city in a daze. Sounds seemed louder. The light, too bright. And faces too familiar.
She passed a man on the subway and whispered, without meaning to, "Mr. Klein."
He turned. "Sorry?"
She blinked. The face was different. Older.
But in her mind, she saw a flash
A man in a suit, screaming about stocks. Her firing him.
Back when she wore red lipstick and heels that echoed like thunder in marble hallways.
Back when she was Isabella Reed.
By the time her shift started, Ava's head was spinning. Jasmine noticed.
"You okay?" she asked, handing Ava a tray. "You look like you saw a ghost."
"I think I am the ghost," Ava muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Late that night, as Ava walked home, rain began to fall slow and soft at first, then in sheets. She didn't run. She welcomed it, arms open, letting it soak her.
Her clothes clung to her skin.
Her heart beat like a drum.
Then she froze.
A black car. Parked across the street. Engine off. Windows tinted.
She didn't know why it scared her, but it did.
Something in her gut twisted.
She stared at the car. It didn't move.
But her memories did.
A night. A garage.
Someone waiting.
A voice: "You should've stayed in your place, Isabella."
Her legs gave out.
She hit the pavement.
And the pain in her back returned blinding, sharp, like glass.
The last thing she saw before passing out…
Was the man from the café.
Running toward her.