There was no impact.
No crash. No pain.
Only silence—
and then cold.
The world hadn’t caught her.
It had swallowed her.
Mira opened her eyes to darkness.
Not the kind that comes from night—
but the kind that feels... buried.
The air was stale. Dust-heavy.
The silence buzzed, like static trapped under her skin.
She was lying on stone.
Not clean tile, not hospital bed—
ancient, cracked stone, pulsing faintly with lines of silver light running beneath it like veins.
She sat up slowly.
Her wrist still had the name.
Naera.
Still not hers.
But now… it didn’t feel like a lie.
Around her was a circular room, carved into rock.
The walls were covered in symbols she didn’t recognize,
but they made her stomach twist,
as if her body remembered things her mind had forgotten.
She stood.
Every step echoed.
Every breath felt watched.
Then—
a sound.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It came from the wall ahead of her.
She moved toward it, her fingers brushing the stone—
Suddenly, a section of the wall shivered.
Like a ripple through fabric.
And from it… a figure stepped out.
Not the shadow.
Not the thing from the white room.
Someone else.
A girl.
Around Mira’s age.
Wearing a tattered uniform and a silver key on a chain around her neck.
Her eyes were wide.
Her voice—whispered.
> “You came through the Core.”
Mira blinked.
“What—what is this place?”
The girl stepped closer.
> “This is the Archive. It keeps what the world forgets.”
“And you... you’re not supposed to be awake yet.”
Behind the girl, the walls began to pulse—
like the place was reacting to Mira’s presence.
> “What do you mean ‘not supposed to be awake’?”
The girl didn’t answer.
Instead, she looked at Mira’s wristband.
Her eyes widened.
> “Naera…”
She whispered the name like it was sacred.
Or dangerous.
> “You’re the last one. The Core.”
“If you’re here… then it’s already started.”
Mira’s heart raced.
She felt like she was being pulled apart—past and present, memory and myth, all crashing inside her.
> “What’s started?” she asked, voice trembling.
Before the girl could answer—
a loud, low bell rang through the Archive.
Once.
Twice.
Then the stone beneath them shifted.
Walls opening.
Voices rising.
Not human.
Not kind.
And the girl grabbed Mira’s hand.
> “Run.”
YOU ARE READING
memory core
Fantasy> ❝Memories don't die... They just hide where no one dares to look.❞ Mira thought she was just a normal girl. Until she woke up in a strange room, with a name that wasn't hers and a heart that remembered something... or someone... else. There is som...
