The Memory Broker

Chapter Two: The Ghost in the Machine

Riva sat in the dim light of her apartment, staring blankly at the shattered memory chip. Its once-sleek surface now lay in pieces, scattered across her coffee table like shards of broken glass. She had made her decision, but the weight of it still hung over her like a storm cloud, dark and foreboding.

Destroying the memory should have felt like the right thing to do. It was, after all, what she'd always told herself: the past was malleable, and some memories were better left forgotten. But this was different. This wasn't a painful childhood or an embarrassing moment; it was a truth powerful enough to tear the world apart. And she had erased it.

Her hands trembled as she reached for the glass of water on the table. The air in the room felt suffocating. She stood abruptly, moving to the window to catch a glimpse of the city below. Neon lights flickered in the distance, casting long shadows over the streets. It was the same city, but Riva could no longer look at it the same way.

A soft chime interrupted her thoughts. Her comm interface blinked with an incoming message. Riva swiped the air, and the translucent screen appeared before her, displaying a single line of text.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Riva's heart skipped a beat. She quickly tapped to trace the origin, but the sender was anonymous—again. Whoever it was, they had been watching her.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to think. It had been only two days since her meeting with Sero, the memory forger. After learning about the conspiracy to erase whole pieces of history, she had thought she understood the stakes. But now, it seemed she had only scratched the surface.

The message flashed again, this time with another line.

"Meet me at the old terminal. Midnight."

Riva considered ignoring it. She was already in over her head. But curiosity, that relentless instinct of hers, gnawed at her. She had to know who was behind this—and why they cared so much about the memory she had destroyed.

The old terminal was a relic from a time when people still traveled by physical trains, long before the invention of neural transport systems. Now, the place was deserted, the tracks rusted and overgrown, the station itself a crumbling monument to a forgotten era.

Riva stood near the platform, her eyes scanning the shadows for any sign of movement. Midnight had come and gone, but no one had appeared. She was beginning to wonder if this was a setup, some kind of trap, when she heard footsteps echo from the far end of the platform.

A figure emerged from the darkness, cloaked in a long coat, hood pulled low over their face. Riva tensed, her hand inching toward the small pulse weapon hidden beneath her jacket.

"Riva," the figure called softly, raising a hand. "I'm not here to harm you."

"Then show me your face," Riva replied, her voice steady.

The figure hesitated before pulling back the hood, revealing the familiar, weathered features of Kellan.

"You," Riva said, surprised. "How did you—"

"You shouldn't have destroyed it," Kellan interrupted, his voice cold. "That memory was the key. And now it's gone."

Riva crossed her arms. "You didn't tell me the whole truth, Kellan. I thought I was dealing with a stolen memory, not the unraveling of reality as we know it."
no
Kellan's eyes darkened, his gaze drifting to the crumbling station around them. "You think I didn't want to tell you? I don't even fully understand what we're up against. But that memory was a part of something much bigger—bigger than you, me, and everyone in this city. It's not just about uncovering the past. It's about stopping what's coming next."

"And what exactly is that?" Riva demanded. "You keep speaking in riddles. What is so important that the powers-that-be would go to such lengths to bury it?"

Kellan stepped closer, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "Do you know why they control memories? It's not just to hide corruption or cover their tracks. It's because they're rewriting the future."

Riva blinked, trying to process his words. "What are you talking about?"

"The system—the ones behind the memory erasures—they've found a way to control what people believe, not just about the past, but about what's possible. They've been manipulating memories to alter perception, bending reality to their will. And now they're perfecting it, building a neural network that will lock everyone into a single version of the world. A world of their choosing."

Riva's stomach dropped. "That's impossible."

Kellan shook his head. "It's not. The memory you destroyed—it was evidence. Proof that someone had broken free, that reality isn't as solid as we think. That's why they erased it. And that's why they'll come for you next."

Riva's mind raced, pieces of the puzzle snapping into place with terrifying clarity. "You mean... they can change reality by changing what we remember?"

Kellan nodded. "Exactly. And soon, they won't need to hide. They'll make us believe whatever they want us to believe."

A chill ran down Riva's spine. She had thought she was dealing with a conspiracy to erase inconvenient memories, but this was far worse. This was about controlling the very fabric of existence.

"So what do we do?" she asked, her voice quiet but determined.

Kellan's gaze hardened. "We fight back. There are others—people like me—who still remember fragments of what's been erased. We can still stop them, but we need to act fast."

Riva swallowed hard, her mind still reeling from the enormity of the situation. But one thing was clear: she was no longer just a memory broker. She was now part of a battle for reality itself.

"I'm in," she said, meeting Kellan's eyes. "What's our next move?"

Kellan smiled grimly. "We find the source of their control. And we destroy it."

As they slipped away into the shadows, Riva knew there was no turning back. The world she had known—built on a foundation of lies—was crumbling. And now, it was up to her to decide what would rise in its place.