EPISODE 14 :THE MEMORY ROOM
807 Words
“Welcome home, first daughter.”
Maya stood frozen.
The voice didn’t come from the walls anymore.
It came from inside her head.
She covered her ears.
“Stop!”
The little girl watched her calmly.
“You can’t stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Remembering.”
Maya looked around.
The photographs on the walls began changing.
They no longer showed her childhood.
They showed things she had never seen.
Her mother carrying two babies.
Her grandmother standing beside the red door.
A younger Ellie crying in the corner of a dark room.
Maya stared at the photograph.
“Ellie?”
Ellie stepped backward.
“I never told you about that night.”
“What night?”
Ellie looked at the little girl.
“The night I died.”
Maya’s blood ran cold.
“You died?”
Ellie nodded.
“Seventeen years ago.”
Maya stared at her.
“But you’re here.”
“Not exactly.”
The little girl laughed softly.
“She still doesn’t understand.”
Maya turned toward her.
“Then explain it.”
The girl pointed at the floor.
A small wooden door appeared.
It opened by itself.
Inside was a tiny room.
There was a bed.
A chair.
And a mirror.
Maya stepped inside.
The door slammed behind her.
“Ellie!”
No answer.
Maya grabbed the handle.
It wouldn’t move.
Then she looked into the mirror.
Her reflection wasn’t copying her.
It was smiling.
Maya stepped backward.
The reflection raised one finger to its lips.
“Shhh.”
Maya whispered:
“Who are you?”
The reflection answered:
“I’m the part of you that stayed.”
Maya’s heart began pounding.
“I don’t understand.”
“You weren’t brought to this house.”
The reflection stepped closer to the glass.
“You were taken from it.”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“You escaped.”
“From what?”
The reflection’s smile disappeared.
“From your sister.”
The mirror cracked.
A memory exploded into Maya’s mind.
Two little girls.
Running through the hallway.
One screaming.
One laughing.
A red door standing open.
Her mother shouting:
“RUN, MAYA!”
Maya watched herself grab the other girl’s hand.
Then she saw what happened next.
She let go.
The other girl fell through the red door.
Maya slammed it shut.
The memory ended.
Maya fell to her knees.
“No…”
The reflection whispered:
“You left her.”
Tears filled Maya’s eyes.
“I was a child.”
“She didn’t care.”
“Who?”
The reflection pointed behind her.
Maya slowly turned.
The little girl was standing inside the room.
Her face had changed.
She no longer looked frightened.
She looked angry.
“You promised you would come back.”
Maya stood.
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“You knew enough to run.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
The mirror shattered.
Maya screamed.
The little girl grabbed her hand.
“Come.”
“Where?”
“To the place you left me.”
The wall opened.
Behind it was a room Maya had never seen.
A child’s bedroom.
Two beds stood side by side.
Two dolls sat on the pillows.
One bed was covered in dust.
The other was perfectly clean.
Maya stared.
“Which bed was mine?”
The little girl pointed.
“The clean one.”
Maya’s eyes widened.
“Then yours was—”
“Mine.”
The little girl climbed onto the dusty bed.
“I’ve been sleeping here ever since.”
Maya looked at the walls.
Hundreds of scratches covered them.
Some were tiny.
Some were deep.
And one sentence had been carved again and again:
MAYA PROMISED TO COME BACK.
Maya touched the words.
“I don’t remember promising.”
The little girl leaned toward her.
“You don’t remember because the house took that memory.”
“Why?”
“Because if you remembered…”
She smiled.
“…you would never have come back.”
A loud knock sounded from the other side of the wall.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The little girl suddenly stopped smiling.
“Maya…”
“What?”
“It’s awake.”
“What is?”
The knocking became louder.
The entire room shook.
Then a voice spoke from behind the wall.
Maya’s mother’s voice.
“Open the door.”
The little girl grabbed Maya’s arm.
“Don’t.”
Maya stared at the door.
Her mother’s voice came again.
“Please, Maya.”
Then another voice joined it.
Ellie’s voice.
“Don’t listen to her.”
Maya backed away.
Two voices.
Both begging.
Both terrified.
Then a third voice whispered:
“Neither of them is your mother.”
The door slowly opened.
And Maya saw what was waiting on the other side.
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