The world exploded into white light—so blinding that the eight friends felt like freshly washed laundry tumbling in a cosmic washing machine.
Then suddenly—
THUD!
CRASH!
OW—WHOSE ELBOW IS THAT?!
They landed in a heap on a marble floor.
When their vision finally stopped spinning, they realized they were inside a completely different place:
A grand hall…
cracked.
Shattered.
Frozen in time like someone pressed pause on reality.
Portraits flickered on the walls like glitching gifs.
Flowers wilted and bloomed in the same second.
A ceiling chandelier swung even though there was no wind.
And whispers echoed from everywhere—
"Aiden…"
"Don't forget..."
"Run…"
Zoya shivered violently. "Nope. No ma'am. No sir. This is creepy-memory-horror and I am underqualified."
Kian pointed at a floating chair stuck mid-air. "Okay why is that chair levitating? Who died here? Why is this giving haunted-windows-update-vibes?"
Aria steadied herself. "We're in Elise's mind. And her memories are broken."
Yuvan raised a finger. "Fun fact: I saw a horror movie like this once. Everyone died."
Rhea elbowed him. "Stop manifesting funerals!"
Suddenly, the scroll reappeared with a BLINK.
MEMORY PUZZLE 1:
Find Elise's happiest moment.
Before the heartbreak began.
Only joy can open the next path.
Ravi sighed. "We're doing emotional archaeology now. Great."
A voice echoed softly around them—
gentle, trembling, familiar.
"Aiden… you promised you'd return before the storm."
The marble floor beneath them rippled like water—
and the scene changed.
---
THE MEMORY SHIFTED
They now stood outside in a beautiful garden under a golden sunrise.
Birds chirped.
Roses shimmered.
Everything looked warm, fresh, alive—like a fairytale beginning.
Except…
Pieces of the memory were missing.
Half a tree.
A bench with only two legs.
A fountain frozen mid-splash.
Like a corrupted file loading at 50%.
"Ohhhh," Yuvan whispered. "She got happy memories in trial version."
Zoya slapped his arm.
In the middle of the garden stood Elise.
Real Elise.
Beautiful, gentle, wearing a soft smile…
But she was glitching—her form flickering like unstable hologram pixels.
Aiden gasped. "Elise…"
She didn't hear him.
She was staring at something—
a small music box in her hand.
Mira nudged Aria. "That must be the key. Her happy moment."
Aria nodded. "Let's go talk to—"
CRACK.
The sky above split like broken glass.
Everyone froze.
Rhea whispered, "Um… guys… why is the sky having a mental breakdown?"
Dark veins spread across the golden sky like ink in water.
And then—
A monstrous shadow slithered across the cracks.
The same one from the forest.
Only bigger.
And angrier.
And glitching like it had downloaded a virus from hell.
Aiden panicked. "It's inside her memory! It shouldn't be here!"
The monster lunged downward—
straight toward Elise.
"MOVE!" Aria shouted.
The group sprinted into formation—
well, as much as eight panicking humans could form anything.
Kian tripped over a memory-rose.
Dev grabbed him by the collar mid-fall.
Zoya screamed at the monster.
Mira screamed at Zoya.
Yuvan screamed at the sky.
Rhea screamed in general.
Ravi shoved past them. "We need the music box! Touching it might stabilize the memory!"
Aria nodded. "Then we go in!"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'GO IN'?!" Kian yelled.
Aria charged forward anyway.
---
THE RUSH TOWARD ELISE
Elise stood frozen, glitching, unaware of the incoming danger.
The monster roared—
a distorted, painful sound.
It dove toward her.
Aria jumped—
grabbing Elise's arm just in time—
And suddenly—
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded through the garden.
The world shattered like breaking mirrors.
The friends were thrown backward.
The monster vanished.
The memory began collapsing—
petals raining upward, trees dissolving, sky cracking open.
Rhea shouted, "THE WORLD IS ENDING—AGAIN!"
Zoya clutched Mira.
Kian wrapped his arms around a bush for emotional support.
Yuvan hugged the air.
Dev tried to shield everyone with his big body.
Ravi yelled, "Aria! THE MUSIC BOX! OPEN IT!"
Aria, coughing, still clutching Elise, fumbled with the small music box.
Her fingers shook.
The world trembled.
She clicked the latch.
DING.
The soft lullaby inside began to play.
The collapsing world froze—
paused—
stilled—
then rewound like a video reversing.
The garden restored itself.
Colors returned.
The sky healed.
Elise stopped glitching.
Her eyes cleared for a moment.
She looked at them.
Really looked.
"Who… are you?" she whispered.
Aiden stepped forward, voice trembling, "Elise, it's me—"
But Elise stepped back.
"I… don't know you."
Aiden staggered like he'd been stabbed.
The scroll lit up again:
MEMORY PUZZLE 1 COMPLETE
You found her happiest moment.
But the heartbreak runs deeper.
Next puzzle: Find the moment she forgot Aiden.
Yuvan groaned. "Oh yay. More trauma."
But before anyone could move—
A new crack appeared in the sky.
Deep.
Pitch black.
And so wide it split the memory in half.
Something huge moved behind it.
Something worse than the monster.
Aria whispered, "Guys… I think Round 1 is about to get… very ugly."
The memory began pulling them deeper—
dragging them into the next sealed moment.
Another fall.
Another scream.
Round 1: Stage 2 unlocked.
Elise's forgotten moment awaited.
And it wasn't going to be peaceful.
---