Chapter 7: The Memory Collector

Aria didn't stop running until the abandoned academy had disappeared behind the trees.

Her lungs burned.

Her hands trembled as she clutched the worn leather journal against her chest.

The mysterious man's words echoed repeatedly inside her mind.

"Don't trust the memories inside your own head."

"What does that even mean?"

She had believed her memories were the only thing she could rely on.

Now even those felt uncertain.

By the time she reached home, the sun was beginning to set.

Fortunately, her parents had not returned yet.

She quietly slipped inside and hurried to her bedroom before locking the door.

The journal lay on her desk.

Taking a deep breath, Aria opened it once more.

Several pages had been damaged by moisture, but most of the writing remained readable.

"Day 42," one entry began.

"We finally discovered what Professor Holloway has been hiding beneath the academy."

"He calls himself the Memory Collector."

Aria frowned.

"Memory Collector?"

She continued reading.

"His experiments aren't about science."

"They're about souls."

"He believes memories can be removed from one person and implanted into another."

Aria's heart skipped.

"Implanted...?"

The next sentence made her blood run cold.

"If successful, nobody will ever know who they truly were again."

Her hands slowly lowered the journal.

"Is that... what happened to me?"

"Were my memories... given to me?"

She immediately shook her head.

"No."

"I remember my parents."

"My school."

"The bullying."

"The pain was real."

Wasn't it?

A sudden knock interrupted her thoughts.

"Sweetheart?"

Eleanor's gentle voice came from outside.

"We're home."

Aria quickly hid the journal beneath her mattress.

"Coming!"

At dinner, she barely touched her food.

Her father noticed immediately.

"Everything okay, kiddo?"

"You usually finish before I do."

"I'm just tired," Aria answered.

Eleanor exchanged a worried glance with her husband.

"Maybe she's catching a cold."

"We'll keep an eye on her tonight."

Watching them fuss over her should have made Aria feel guilty.

Instead, it made her even more confused.

"If my memories are fake..."

"Then why do I still hate her?"

That night, after everyone had gone to sleep, Aria opened the journal again.

This time she noticed something hidden inside the back cover.

A folded piece of yellowed paper.

Carefully unfolding it, she discovered an old blueprint.

It was a map of St. Helena Academy.

One section had been circled in red.

"Sub-Level B."

"Restricted Access."

"Laboratory."

"There's a basement..."

She was certain she hadn't seen any basement entrance earlier.

Written beneath the map was another message.

"If the Collector survives the fire, he will come searching for the vessels."

"Destroy the Archive before he finds them."

"The vessels?"

Aria whispered.

"Who are the vessels?"

Just then...

The lights inside her bedroom flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Then they went out completely.

"Power outage?"

She reached for her flashlight.

Before she could switch it on...

A voice spoke from the darkness.

"You've grown since I last saw you."

Aria spun around.

"Who's there?"

The room remained silent.

Then...

The bedroom mirror slowly began to fog over from the inside.

Letters appeared one by one.

"DON'T TRUST HIM."

"Who?" Aria asked.

The message vanished.

Another appeared.

"THE MAN IN THE ACADEMY LIED."

"Tell me who you are!"

This time no answer came.

Instead...

The reflection inside the mirror changed.

It no longer showed Aria.

A teenage girl stared back.

She looked about sixteen.

Long brown hair.

Bright green eyes.

A scar across her left eyebrow.

She was crying.

"Help me," the girl whispered.

"Before he erases me completely."

Aria stumbled backward.

"Who are you?"

The girl's lips moved once more.

"I'm..."

Crack!

The mirror shattered into dozens of pieces.

The vision disappeared instantly.

Silence filled the room.

Aria's breathing became uneven.

"That wasn't a dream..."

She slowly approached the broken mirror.

Among the shattered glass lay a tiny black object.

A memory card.

"How...?"

It certainly hadn't been there before.

She picked it up carefully.

There was no label.

Only one symbol engraved on its surface.

A silver eye.

The same symbol she had noticed on the mysterious man's ring back at the academy.

The following morning, Aria borrowed her father's old laptop while he was working in the garden.

She inserted the memory card.

One single video file appeared.

"Experiment 17."

Her finger hovered over the mouse.

"Do I really want to know?"

After several seconds...

She clicked play.

Static filled the screen.

Then an old security recording appeared.

The date in the corner read:

"October 14."

Nearly twenty years earlier.

A laboratory came into view.

Several teenagers sat inside strange metal chairs wearing silver helmets connected by dozens of wires.

Scientists moved around them, adjusting machines.

One face immediately caught Aria's attention.

Professor Holloway.

The same man Clara had called the Memory Collector.

He looked directly into the camera.

"Memory Transfer Trial Seventeen," he announced.

"Subject A will receive the emotional imprint of Subject B."

"If successful... identity itself can be rewritten."

Aria's blood ran cold.

Then she saw the teenagers more clearly.

One of them looked exactly like the girl from the mirror.

Another...

Looked exactly like Eleanor.

"No..."

The final chair remained hidden behind a large machine.

Just before the recording ended, the hidden girl's face became visible for only a fraction of a second.

Aria froze.

She wasn't looking at someone else.

She was looking at herself.

Or rather...

Someone with her exact face.

The screen suddenly went black.

One final sentence appeared in white letters.

"Original Subject: Unknown."

"Status: Missing."