Chapter 4. The Names of The Forgotten
745 Words
all.
She sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the note.
They're forgetting already.
The words felt heavier than stone.
She kept trying to remember her mother's favorite song.
A lullaby.
She knew it had been a lullaby.
Her mother used to sing it while cooking dinner.
But the melody was gone.
The lyrics were gone.
All that remained was the feeling that it had once mattered.
And that terrified her.
---
The next morning, the village looked as cheerful as ever.
People smiled.
Children played.
The smell of fresh bread drifted through the streets.
Yet now Mia noticed something she hadn't before.
There were no photographs of families.
No portraits.
No memorials.
Nothing that connected anyone to a life before the village.
It was as if everyone's past had been erased.
Or hidden.
---
Determined to find answers, Mia returned to the forest edge where she had first arrived.
The trees stood silent beneath a gray sky.
She searched among them until she found the carved names again.
EMILY
JONAH
MARCUS
ELENA
Dozens of names.
Perhaps hundreds.
Each carved into bark weathered by time.
Some looked recent.
Others appeared decades old.
As she ran her fingers over one carving, she noticed something strange.
Below the name was a date.
October 14, 1998
Another.
June 3, 2007
Another.
January 22, 1981
Arrival dates.
Not birth dates.
Not deaths.
Arrivals.
The realization sent a shiver through her.
How long had this village existed?
And how many people had vanished into it?
---
A sudden voice behind her made her jump.
"You shouldn't be here."
Mia spun around.
A girl stood among the trees.
She looked about seventeen.
Pale.
Thin.
Wearing an oversized sweater.
Mia had never seen her before.
The girl's eyes darted nervously toward the village.
"You need to leave."
Mia stared.
"I've tried. Every path leads back."
The girl nodded sadly.
"I know."
"Who are you?"
For a moment the girl hesitated.
Then she answered.
"Honestly? I don't remember."
A hollow feeling opened inside Mia.
The girl looked frightened by her own answer.
"I remember arriving," she continued. "I remember being lonely. I remember following the lantern."
She pressed a hand against her forehead.
"But my family... my town... my school..."
Her voice cracked.
"It's all disappearing."
Mia felt sick.
"How long have you been here?"
"I don't know."
The girl laughed bitterly.
"Maybe that's disappearing too."
---
Before Mia could ask another question, a bell rang from the village.
One deep metallic chime.
The girl's face immediately drained of color.
"No."
Another bell echoed.
Then another.
The girl backed away.
"What is it?" Mia asked.
The girl looked toward the clock tower.
"They're calling everyone."
"Who?"
The girl didn't answer.
Instead she whispered:
"The Keepers."
Then she ran.
Vanishing between the trees.
---
That evening every villager gathered in the square.
Every single one.
Old and young.
Silent and motionless.
Waiting.
Mia stood at the back of the crowd.
The clock tower loomed overhead.
For the first time since she had arrived, its doors opened.
A cold wind swept through the square.
Out of the darkness stepped three figures dressed in long black coats.
Their faces were hidden beneath shadow.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The villagers lowered their heads as the figures passed.
The Keepers.
The tallest of them stopped in the center of the square.
His voice was calm.
Almost gentle.
"Another has been chosen."
A lantern suddenly ignited beside him.
Golden light flickered across the crowd.
Mia's stomach twisted.
The lantern.
The same one that had led her here.
"It will travel again tonight," the Keeper continued.
"It will find someone who needs a home."
The villagers smiled.
But Mia noticed something chilling.
The smiles never reached their eyes.
---
Then the Keeper's gaze swept across the crowd.
And stopped on Mia.
For a second, everything seemed to freeze.
The villagers slowly turned toward her.
One by one.
Hundreds of eyes.
Watching.
The Keeper tilted his head.
Almost curious.
Then he smiled.
"Mia Reyes."
Her blood turned to ice.
"How do you know my name?" she whispered.
The Keeper's smile widened.
"We knew it long before you arrived."
Silence filled the square.
Then he said something that made her heart stop.
"Just as we know how your story ends."
The lantern beside him flared brighter.
And somewhere deep inside the clock tower, something massive stirred in the darkness.
Something that sounded far too large to be human.
- Writer
