# CHAPTER 1 — THE MEMORY THAT HADN'T HAPPENED
The first thing Elias Vale remembered was the sound of rain.
Not the rain falling outside his bedroom.
This rain was different.
It hammered against enormous windows somewhere high above the ground, each drop striking the glass with a sharp, frantic rhythm. Thunder rolled through the darkness, deep enough to make the floor tremble.
Elias stood in the middle of a corridor.
He didn't know where he was.
The walls were covered in old photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Black-and-white faces stared down at him from crooked frames. Men. Women. Children. Some looked frightened. Others looked angry.
And all of them seemed to be watching him.
"Elias."
A voice whispered his name.
He turned.
At the far end of the corridor stood a girl.
She looked about his age.
Dark hair fell across one side of her face, soaked by rain. Her clothes were torn and covered in mud. One hand was pressed against the wall as though she needed it to remain standing.
"Elias," she whispered again.
He tried to move toward her.
His feet wouldn't obey.
"Who are you?"
The girl looked behind herself.
Fear flashed across her face.
Then came the sound.
Three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The girl froze.
"Don't let him find me."
"Who?"
The lights went out.
For one second, there was absolute darkness.
Then lightning exploded through the windows.
The corridor appeared again.
The girl was gone.
In her place stood a man.
Tall.
Completely still.
His face was hidden beneath the shadow of a black hood.
Elias tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
The man lifted one hand.
A silver watch hung around his wrist.
The second hand was moving backward.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Then the man said something Elias could never forget.
"You're too late."
The corridor disappeared.
And Elias woke up screaming.
---
He sat upright in bed.
His chest rose and fell rapidly.
For several seconds, he didn't know where he was.
Then reality returned piece by piece.
His bedroom.
His desk.
The cracked blue paint on the wall.
The stack of textbooks beside the window.
The digital clock glowing beside his bed.
**6:17 A.M.**
Elias stared at it.
Rain tapped gently against his window.
He swallowed.
His hands were shaking.
Again.
Another dream.
Except this one had felt different.
He pushed the blanket aside and stood.
Cold floorboards pressed against his feet.
He walked to the window.
Outside, the town was slowly waking beneath a gray morning sky. Cars moved along the distant road. A bakery had already opened. Somewhere nearby, a dog barked twice before falling silent.
Everything looked normal.
Everything except the memory still trapped inside his head.
The girl.
The corridor.
The watch.
He closed his eyes.
The images returned immediately.
He had experienced strange dreams before.
But never like this.
They weren't dreams anymore.
They were memories.
At least, that's what they felt like.
Elias opened his eyes.
"That's impossible."
He said it quietly.
The room gave no answer.
His phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen.
**7:03 A.M.**
He frowned.
He had been staring at the clock for less than a minute.
Hadn't he?
He picked up his phone.
There was a notification from the weather app.
**Heavy rain expected at 8:40 A.M.**
Elias stared at it.
His stomach tightened.
In the dream, the rain had been violent.
He shook his head.
Coincidence.
It had to be.
He dressed quickly and left his room.
---
By eight o'clock, Elias was walking toward school.
The rain had started.
Not heavily.
Just a thin drizzle that darkened the sidewalks and made the streets shine.
He kept his hood pulled over his head.
His mind wouldn't let go of the dream.
The strange part wasn't that he'd seen an unfamiliar girl.
It was the certainty that he'd known her.
Not her name.
Not where she lived.
But something about her felt familiar.
As if he'd already spent years knowing her.
He reached the school gates.
Students crowded beneath umbrellas.
Teachers hurried toward the main entrance.
Someone bumped into Elias's shoulder.
"Sorry."
He barely noticed.
Then he heard laughter.
He stopped.
A girl was standing beside the front steps.
Dark hair.
Gray jacket.
A black backpack hanging from one shoulder.
Elias's entire body went cold.
It was her.
Not similar.
Not almost.
Her.
The same face from the corridor.
The same eyes.
For a moment, the noise of the school disappeared.
The rain seemed to slow.
The students became blurred shapes moving around them.
Elias couldn't breathe.
The girl looked directly at him.
Their eyes met.
She frowned slightly.
Like she was trying to remember him.
Then someone called her name.
"Mara!"
She turned.
A friend waved from the entrance.
Mara.
The name struck Elias like a physical blow.
Mara.
He had never heard it before.
Yet somewhere inside his mind, it felt as though he had been carrying it for years.
Mara walked away.
Elias remained frozen.
A student passed behind him.
"You're blocking the gate."
Elias stepped aside.
His eyes followed Mara until she disappeared inside the building.
He whispered to himself.
"No."
His phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown number.
Elias looked at the screen.
**DON'T TALK TO HER.**
His heart stopped.
He stared at the message.
Another appeared.
**YOU HAVE THREE DAYS.**
Elias looked around.
Students were entering the school.
Teachers were talking.
Cars passed outside.
Nobody appeared to be watching him.
Then his phone vibrated again.
A photograph appeared.
Elias opened it.
His hands went numb.
It was the corridor from his dream.
The same photographs.
The same windows.
The same dark walls.
But this picture had been taken recently.
In the bottom-right corner was a timestamp.
**Tomorrow. 11:43 P.M.**
Elias stared at it.
Impossible.
He zoomed in.
Someone had written a sentence on the wall.
Four words.
**SHE MUST NOT REMEMBER.**
His phone suddenly went black.
Not powered off.
Black.
The screen refused to respond.
"Elias?"
He looked up.
Mara was standing in front of him.
She had returned.
Her expression had changed.
She wasn't confused anymore.
She looked frightened.
"You know me," she said.
Elias said nothing.
Mara glanced around.
Then lowered her voice.
"I don't know how you know me."
"I don't."
"You were staring at me."
"I thought you were someone else."
"Who?"
Elias hesitated.
The answer was sitting on the tip of his tongue.
A corridor.
Rain.
A hooded man.
A silver watch.
A girl who had begged him not to let someone find her.
"You wouldn't believe me."
Mara studied his face.
"Try me."
Before Elias could answer, the school bell rang.
Students began moving around them.
Mara stepped closer—not intimately, but urgently.
"Listen carefully."
Elias looked at her.
"I've seen you before."
His blood ran cold.
"Where?"
Mara's eyes moved toward the school building.
"In a dream."
Elias stared at her.
"What happened?"
She swallowed.
"You were standing in a hallway."
His heartbeat accelerated.
"There was rain outside."
Mara nodded.
"There were photographs on the walls."
Elias couldn't speak.
"And someone was looking for me."
He felt the world tilt beneath his feet.
"What did you see?"
Mara's face became pale.
"I saw you."
A long silence passed between them.
Then Mara whispered:
"And you were dead."
The bell rang again.
Neither of them moved.
Elias looked toward the school windows.
For one brief moment, he saw something reflected in the glass behind Mara.
A tall figure.
Black hood.
Silver watch.
Elias spun around.
Nothing.
Only students.
Teachers.
Rain.
He turned back.
Mara was staring at him.
"You saw him too," she said.
Elias looked at the empty reflection.
"Who?"
Mara's voice dropped to almost nothing.
"The man who has been appearing in my dreams for six years."
A cold wind swept through the entrance.
Elias looked at his phone.
The screen suddenly came alive.
One new message.
No number.
No sender.
Just four words.
**ONE DAY HAS PASSED.**
Elias stared at it.
He slowly looked at Mara.
"What happens in three days?"
Mara didn't answer.
She was looking past him.
At the school entrance.
At something Elias couldn't see.
Then she whispered:
"That's when the first person disappears."
The lights inside the school flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every light went out.
Hundreds of students screamed.
Emergency alarms began ringing.
And somewhere deep inside the darkness, Elias heard three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Exactly as they had sounded in his memory.
Except this time—
he was awake.