"If memories can be written...who writes mine?"
The hum of the hospital light flickered above her head.
Nyra lay motionless, eyes half - closed. In her dream, she was sitting at a long dining table made of mahogany wood. Candles flickered. Across from her, Mr. Raghavan smiled with a crooked yellow teeth.
"Eat, Elira," he said.
Elira?
She looked down at her hands - small, trembling. Child hands. A red bracelet looped around her wrist. She knew this bracelet.
But it wasn't hers.
She reached for a silver spoon. It melted in her fingers. The ceiling cracked open.
Allen stood in the corner, eyes blank, whispering:
"You chose to forget, we just helped you."
Her own voice echoed, but it wasn't hers:
"My name is Kaira....no - Elira.......Nyra - stop!"
She screamed. The mirror across the room shattered.
She woke up gasping. Sweat clung to her skin like static.
Aarav rushed in.
"Nyra? You okay?"
She jerked back. Her pupils are dilated. Her breath, wild.
"Don't touch me."
He stepped away, palms raised," I'm not here to hurt you."
"You said that before," she muttered, "Right before you turned on me. Right before - Allen."
Aarav blinked. "Allen.....Who's Allen?"
She stared at him like he just asked her name.
"You.....you were there. In that room. Behind the glass. I remember your voice."
"Nyra i think you are remembering something wrong." he said softly.
"That's the problem," she hissed, "I don't even know which memories are mine anymore."
Ten minutes later.
Nyra sat on the bed, silent, looking at the floor. Aarav handed her a cup of water.
"Did you.....ever heard about something called...The Archive?" she asked, voice cracking.
He paused, "No....But why does it sound so familiar?"
"I created it. A place in my mind. To keep the pain out. But now it's - bleeding. Things are leaking in. Things that aren't mine."
"You mean.....memories?"
She noded. "I remember dying in fire. But i didn't. Elira did."
A beat.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a crumpled newspaper clipping. Hands shaking.
She handed it to aarav.
Headline: "9 - year old Elira Raghavan dies in fire."
The photo beside it?
Her face.
Aarav went pale.
"......that's you."
"No," she said. "That's Elira. But it's also me."
He looked at her, like he was seeing a ghost.
"Who are you , Nyra?"
She looked at him dead in his eyes.
"I don't know anymore."
Later that night.
Aarav stepped out for air.
Alone in her hospital room, Nyra scribbledon the back of news article and slid it under her pillow.
"If you find this and i'm gone....dont trust Allen."
"Or Aarav."
"Maybe even me."
She turned to the mirror beside her bed.
Her reflection. It didn't moved.
It just smiled.
"Tell me....if everything I remember is a lie, then what part of me is still real?"
Drop your suggestions in the comments and like this story if you really loved it.