Part II The Man Who Remembered Everything
875 Words
The elevator doors slid open without a sound.
Lyra stepped into a corridor unlike anything she had ever seen. Endless shelves stretched into the darkness, each holding thousands of glowing memory crystals. Some shone with warm golden light. Others pulsed in deep blue. A few flickered an eerie crimson, as if they carried emotions too painful to fade.
She couldn’t stop staring.
“These are all… memories?”
Kael nodded.
“Millions of them.”
She swallowed.
“From who?”
“Everyone.”
The answer made her skin crawl.
Kael walked ahead, his long coat brushing against the polished floor.
“The Archive Exchange doesn’t only store memories people choose to sell. Some are recovered after accidents. Some are collected after wars. Some belong to people who no longer exist.”
Lyra stopped walking.
“What do you mean… no longer exist?”
Kael didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he reached a large steel door marked with an ancient symbol—a circle broken by a single c***k.
He pressed his palm against it.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a smaller chamber.
Unlike the massive archive outside, this room held only one shelf.
One crystal.
It floated in the center of the room, surrounded by glowing chains.
Lyra stared.
“That’s it?”
Kael’s face became unreadable.
“This is the First Memory.”
“The… first?”
“The first memory ever recorded.”
Lyra laughed nervously.
“You’re joking.”
“I wish I were.”
Silence settled over the room.
She walked closer.
Inside the crystal, faint images flickered.
A woman.
A child.
A city built entirely of light.
None of it looked familiar.
“What is this place?”
Kael looked at the crystal with an expression she couldn’t understand.
“Our world… before history was rewritten.”
Lyra froze.
“Rewritten?”
He finally met her eyes.
“The history you learned in school is a lie.”
Her heart pounded.
“Someone rewrote history?”
“Not someone.”
His voice became quiet.
“An organization.”
“The Collectors.”
The name sent a chill through her.
“The same people chasing me?”
Kael nodded.
“They don’t steal money.”
“They don’t steal secrets.”
“They steal reality.”
Lyra frowned.
“I don’t understand.”
“They erase memories from enough people… and the truth disappears.”
She tried to process his words.
“If nobody remembers something…”
“…then, for the world, it never happened.”
Her knees felt weak.
“So they can erase entire lives?”
“Yes.”
“Entire cities?”
“Yes.”
“Entire families?”
Kael looked away.
“Yes.”
A painful silence followed.
Lyra suddenly remembered the old photograph she had found in her apartment.
The faces without names.
The strange feeling that someone important was missing.
“What if…”
Her voice trembled.
“What if they’ve already done that to me?”
Kael didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
His silence was enough.
Lyra slowly backed away.
“No…”
Her breathing became uneven.
“My parents…”
“My childhood…”
“My brother…”
She stopped.
Brother?
The word slipped out before she could think.
Her eyes widened.
“I…”
Kael turned sharply.
“What did you say?”
Lyra grabbed her head.
“I don’t know.”
“I just…”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“I think…”
“I had a brother.”
A sharp pain exploded inside her skull.
She cried out.
Memories flashed like lightning.
A little boy laughing.
Two children running through the rain.
A silver bracelet.
Someone shouting—
“Run, Lyra!”
The vision shattered.
She collapsed to her knees.
Kael was beside her instantly.
“Don’t force it.”
She gasped for air.
“I saw him.”
“You remembered?”
“Only for a second.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I know he was real.”
Kael helped her stand.
“That’s exactly why they’re hunting you.”
She looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“You still remember fragments.”
“I thought everyone forgot.”
“Most people did.”
“But you…”
He hesitated.
“You were never supposed to remember anything.”
Before Lyra could ask another question—
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then—
A deafening alarm echoed through the archive.
Red lights flashed across the ceiling.
Kael’s expression hardened instantly.
“They found us.”
Heavy footsteps thundered through the hallway.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Dozens.
Voices shouted from outside.
“Seal every exit!”
“Recover Subject Zero!”
“Do not let Lyra Carter escape!”
Lyra’s blood ran cold.
“They know my name…”
Kael pulled a sleek black weapon from beneath his coat and stepped in front of her.
“Stay behind me.”
The steel door exploded inward.
Smoke filled the room.
Dark figures poured inside.
At their front stood a tall woman dressed entirely in white.
Her silver eyes locked onto Lyra.
She smiled.
“We’ve been searching for you for a very long time.”
End of Episode 3 – Part 2
- Writer
