
Chapter 2: The Girl Who Wasn't There
Ren stared over the edge of the rooftop, heart racing. His fingers gripped the rusted railing so tightly it hurt. The concrete below stretched cold and undisturbed. No sign of the girl. No notebook. Nothing.
“She couldn’t have just vanished,” he muttered under his breath.
For a moment, he wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe the Forgotten Week had left its mark on him too, twisting reality in ways he didn’t understand. But the memory of the girl—her voice, her knowing smile—was too sharp, too vivid to dismiss.
“Who was she?” he whispered, his voice swallowed by the empty rooftop.
---
Ren made it back to class, though he barely remembered the walk. His thoughts churned, looping back to the girl’s cryptic words. Don’t forget her. Who was her? Was the girl somehow connected to the message in his notebook?
He didn’t get any answers during the rest of the school day. Teachers droned on, oblivious to his distraction, and Hiro was no help. By the time the final bell rang, Ren was no closer to making sense of what had happened.
---
The Fragment Seekers
Ren didn’t go home right away. Instead, he took a detour, walking aimlessly through the streets of his town. The air felt heavy, charged with something unspoken, and the usual chatter of passersby was subdued. People looked at each other with wary eyes, as if they might find a piece of their missing week reflected in a stranger’s face.
Eventually, Ren found himself in front of a small, run-down bookstore. The sign above the door was faded, the letters barely legible: Fragments of Memory. He had passed it a dozen times before but had never gone inside. Today, something drew him closer.
The bell above the door jingled as he stepped in. The shop smelled of old paper and dust, the shelves crammed with books in no particular order. Behind the counter sat an older man with thick glasses and a permanent scowl. He glanced up, giving Ren a once-over before returning to his book.
“You’re new,” the man grunted.
“Uh, yeah,” Ren said, suddenly feeling out of place. “I’m just... looking around.”
The man snorted. “Aren’t we all?”
Ren ignored the comment and wandered deeper into the store. The farther he went, the stranger the titles became: Dreams of the Void, Echoes of the Forgotten Week, The Memory Thieves.
He paused in front of a shelf labeled Unexplained Phenomena. One book caught his eye: The Fragment Seekers: Stories of the Rememberers.
Ren pulled it from the shelf, his pulse quickening. The cover was simple, black with silver lettering. Inside, the pages were filled with accounts from people claiming to remember bits and pieces of the Forgotten Week.
One passage stood out:
> "Some of us see more than fragments. Some of us see people who shouldn't exist, hear voices that linger after the week is over. We call them the Echoed. They are the key to understanding the truth of the Forgotten Week—but they are also the most dangerous."
Ren’s breath caught. The girl on the rooftop... was she one of these “Echoed”?
He turned the page, but before he could read more, a voice interrupted him.
“Interesting book you’ve got there.”
Ren spun around. A girl stood a few feet away, her arms crossed. She had sharp features and short, dark hair streaked with red. Her uniform wasn’t from his school.
“Uh, yeah,” Ren said, clutching the book. “I just... found it.”
She smirked. “Sure you did. But the real question is, why are you looking for it?”
Ren hesitated. Something about her felt... off. Like she was watching him too closely. “Do I know you?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said, leaning against the shelf. “But you will. The name’s Yuki. And you’re Ren Kurose.”
His stomach dropped. “How do you know my name?”
She shrugged. “I know a lot of things. Like the fact that you’re looking for answers about the Forgotten Week. And that you saw someone who wasn’t supposed to be here.”
Ren froze. “How—?”
“Relax,” Yuki said, raising a hand. “I’m on your side. Let’s just say... I’ve been looking for people like you. People who don’t just accept the reset.”
“What do you mean, ‘people like me’?”
She tilted her head, her smirk fading. “You still remember, don’t you? Fragments. Pieces that don’t add up. Most people let them go, but you’re holding on. And that makes you dangerous.”
Ren clenched his fists. “I’m not dangerous. I just want to know the truth.”
Yuki nodded, her expression serious now. “Good. Because the truth isn’t just about you, Ren. It’s about all of us. And if you’re not careful, it’ll eat you alive.”
---
A Message Left Behind
Yuki left as quickly as she’d appeared, slipping out of the store with a cryptic “See you around.” Ren was left with more questions than answers, but he didn’t dare put the book back.
He bought it with what little cash he had, ignoring the shopkeeper’s knowing grin, and hurried home.
That night, as he lay in bed, he opened the book again. He flipped to the back, hoping for some kind of conclusion, but instead, he found something tucked between the pages.
It was a photograph.
Ren’s heart stopped. The image was blurry, faded, but he could make out two figures: himself and the girl from the rooftop.
On the back of the photo, written in the same handwriting as his notebook, was another message:
“Find her before it’s too late.”
Ren stared at the words, his mind spinning. The girl from the rooftop wasn’t just a hallucination. She was real. And she was connected to him in ways he couldn’t explain.
As he closed his eyes, clutching the photo, he felt a faint whisper echo in his mind.
Don’t forget her.