Episode 3 - Before I Forgot
1709 Words
“Hi, Mara.”
Mara couldn't move.
The woman leaned closer.
“I've been looking everywhere for you.”
For a moment, Mara simply stared at her.
The library suddenly felt too quiet.
She could hear the faint hum of the air conditioner above them, the soft turning of pages somewhere between the shelves, even the sound of her own breathing.
But all Mara could focus on was the woman standing in front of her.
She looked familiar.
Not familiar in the ordinary sense.
It wasn't the kind of familiarity that came from seeing someone around town or recognizing a face from somewhere.
It was deeper than that.
Uncomfortable.
The woman looked at Mara as though she knew her.
As though she knew a version of Mara that Mara herself couldn't remember.
Mara slowly closed the file she had been reading.
It contained almost nothing useful.
A few old records.
A family name.
A date that didn't seem to fit.
She had spent nearly an hour searching through the library's archives, hoping to find anything that could explain the strange gaps in her past.
Instead, she'd found more questions.
And now this woman was standing in front of her as though she had been expecting her.
Mara's fingers tightened around the edge of the table.
“Do I know you?”
The woman's expression fell slightly.
It was a tiny reaction.
But Mara noticed it.
“You don't remember me,” the woman whispered.
Mara felt a strange pressure in her chest.
She had heard those words before.
Not from this woman.
From someone else.
A man.
A hotel elevator.
A pair of eyes that had made her feel like he knew her.
Adrian.
The memory of him surfaced suddenly.
The elevator doors closing.
His voice.
The way he had looked at her.
There had been something almost painful in his expression.
Like seeing her had brought back something he had spent years trying to forget.
Mara had dismissed it as strange.
Now she wasn't so sure.
The woman pulled out the chair opposite Mara.
“May I sit?”
Mara hesitated before nodding.
The woman sat down.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then she placed a small brown envelope on the table.
Mara stared at it.
“What's that?”
“Something that belongs to you.”
Mara didn't touch it.
“How do you know what belongs to me?”
The woman looked toward the library entrance.
“Because I knew you before you became this version of yourself.”
Mara's stomach tightened.
“This version?”
The woman looked back at her.
“My name is Elena.”
Mara waited.
Nothing.
The name didn't trigger anything.
Elena seemed to notice.
She looked almost disappointed.
“You really don't remember.”
Mara's voice became quieter.
“Remember what?”
Elena reached for the envelope.
Then stopped.
“You came here looking for your family.”
Mara's eyes narrowed.
“How do you know that?”
“You've been asking questions.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Mara felt a chill.
She glanced around the library.
“Have you been following me?”
“No.”
Elena's answer came quickly.
“I've been following the trail you left behind.”
Mara stared at her.
“What trail?”
Elena didn't answer.
Instead, she pushed the envelope across the table.
Mara looked at it.
Her name was written across the front.
Not printed.
Handwritten.
The handwriting looked strangely familiar.
She reached for it.
Her fingers stopped just before touching the paper.
Something about the envelope made her nervous.
“You should open it,” Elena said.
Mara looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you came here searching for answers.”
Elena's eyes held hers.
“And that is one of the answers you were looking for.”
Mara finally picked up the envelope.
It was surprisingly light.
Inside was a photograph.
She pulled it out.
Her breath caught.
It was an old photograph of a house.
A large white house surrounded by trees.
Mara stared at it.
She didn't recognize the place.
But something inside her did.
Her heart began beating faster.
A feeling.
A memory that wasn't quite a memory.
Sunlight falling across a wooden staircase.
A child's laughter.
A woman calling her name.
Mara blinked.
The image disappeared.
She looked at Elena.
“What is this?”
“You've been there.”
“When?”
“Before.”
“Before what?”
Elena's expression became guarded.
“Before you forgot.”
Mara looked back at the photograph.
“Why don't I remember?”
Elena was silent.
That silence told Mara more than an answer could have.
“You know.”
Elena looked down.
“I know some things.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can't tell you everything.”
“Why?”
“Because some memories are dangerous when they return too quickly.”
Mara almost laughed.
“Dangerous?”
Elena nodded.
“You think forgetting was an accident.”
Mara's smile disappeared.
“What are you saying?”
Elena leaned closer.
“You didn't simply lose your memories, Mara.”
Mara's fingers went cold.
“What happened to them?”
Elena looked at her for a long moment.
Then she whispered,
“You buried them.”
Mara stopped breathing.
A sudden headache struck.
She pressed her fingers against her temple.
The library blurred.
She saw a hallway.
A suitcase.
A woman's trembling hands.
Someone crying.
Then a voice.
Her own voice.
“I don't want to remember.”
Mara gasped.
The vision disappeared.
Elena stood immediately.
“Mara?”
Mara looked up.
Her heart was racing.
“I heard myself.”
Elena's face had gone pale.
“What did you hear?”
Mara stared at her.
“I said I didn't want to remember.”
Elena slowly sat back down.
For the first time since she had approached Mara, she looked frightened.
Mara noticed.
“You knew that would happen.”
Elena didn't deny it.
Mara pushed the photograph away.
“Tell me the truth.”
Elena looked toward the shelves.
“There are things about your family that you haven't discovered yet.”
“Like what?”
“Like why you left.”
“I don't remember leaving.”
“I know.”
“Then how do you?”
Elena's eyes returned to hers.
“Because I was there.”
Mara froze.
“You were there?”
Elena nodded.
“The night everything changed.”
Mara's heart sank.
“What night?”
Elena opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
Her eyes shifted toward the library entrance.
Mara followed her gaze.
A man had just walked through the doors.
He stood near the front desk, speaking quietly to the librarian.
Mara couldn't see his face clearly.
But something about him made her uneasy.
Elena immediately lowered her voice.
“We need to go.”
Mara frowned.
“Why?”
“Not here.”
“Who is that?”
Elena didn't answer.
She gathered the photograph and envelope.
Mara reached for them.
“Those are mine.”
“I know.”
Elena handed them back.
“Keep them hidden.”
Mara slipped them into her bag.
As they walked between the shelves, Mara glanced over her shoulder.
The man at the front desk was gone.
She stopped.
“Where did he go?”
Elena grabbed her arm.
“Don't look.”
Mara looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because sometimes the safest thing you can do is pretend you didn't notice someone.”
They continued walking.
But Mara's thoughts were somewhere else.
Back at the hotel.
Back inside that elevator.
Back to the man whose eyes had made her feel like she was standing in front of a memory she couldn't reach.
Adrian.
She had thought their meeting was strange.
Now it felt connected.
Everything felt connected.
Her family.
The photograph.
The missing years.
Elena.
And Adrian.
They reached the library's side exit.
Before stepping outside, Elena stopped.
“There is one more thing.”
Mara turned.
“What?”
Elena hesitated.
“When you met Adrian…”
Mara's heart skipped.
“How do you know about him?”
Elena's expression changed.
“You've already met him?”
Mara studied her.
“You tell me.”
For the first time, Elena looked genuinely afraid.
“Mara, listen to me carefully.”
She lowered her voice.
“Whatever he tells you, don't believe that he is the person you remember.”
Mara frowned.
“But I don't remember him.”
Elena stared at her.
“That is exactly what I'm afraid of.”
Then she walked away.
Mara remained standing in the doorway.
The evening air brushed against her face.
She didn't move.
She couldn't.
Elena knew about Adrian.
Which meant their meeting at the hotel hadn't been a coincidence.
Mara reached into her bag and pulled out the photograph.
She turned it over.
There was writing on the back.
She hadn't noticed it before.
Three words.
Don't trust him.
Her stomach dropped.
But underneath those words was something else.
A name.
Written in the same handwriting as the message.
Mara.
She stared at it.
Then another memory surfaced.
Adrian standing inside the elevator.
The doors closing.
His eyes meeting hers.
And his voice, barely above a whisper.
“You don't remember me, do you?”
Mara's fingers trembled.
At the time, she had thought he was a stranger.
Now she wasn't sure.
Because deep inside her mind, beneath all the missing pieces, something was beginning to wake up.
And it wasn't a memory of Adrian.
It was a memory of herself.
A younger Mara.
Crying.
Standing in front of the same white house from the photograph.
And someone was holding her hand.
Someone whose face she still couldn't see.
Then came the words.
Her own voice.
“If I ever forget…”
The memory shattered.
Mara gasped.
The photograph slipped from her fingers.
She looked down at it.
And suddenly, she understood something that frightened her more than anything Elena had said.
She hadn't forgotten her past by accident.
She had forgotten it for a reason.
And somewhere in that forgotten life was the truth about why she had been running.
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