I stood still.
For a few seconds, I even forgot how to breathe.
The voice could still be heard from behind the door.
“Open it.”
Just one word.
And yet, for some reason, it felt like an order I couldn't refuse.
My hand slowly rose.
My fingers were only a few inches from the doorknob when the voice spoke again.
“You're late.”
I froze.
My brow furrowed.
Late?
I didn't even know where this place was.
I didn't know who the woman behind the door was.
And what frightened me most was that I didn't know why her voice sounded so familiar.
“Who are you?” I finally asked.
There was no answer.
I swallowed.
“Why am I here?”
Silence.
Then I heard a soft chuckle.
It wasn't a happy laugh.
It was the laugh of someone who had known something long before anyone else realized it.
“You really forgot?”
I shook my head, even though there was no way she could see me.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Liar.”
Her voice grew softer.
“You know.”
I stared at the door.
Something inside me told me I should leave.
Now.
Before the door opened.
Before I found out what was really behind it.
But my feet moved forward instead.
One step.
Then another.
My hand finally touched the doorknob.
Cold.
Freezing cold.
As if the knob had just been taken from somewhere the sun had never touched.
I slowly turned it.
Click.
The door opened a crack.
I peered through the gap.
Darkness.
There was no one there.
“No way…”
I pushed the door wider.
The room beyond it was empty.
There was only a chair in the middle of the room.
A black object sat on the chair.
A phone.
I stepped inside.
The woman's voice disappeared.
I looked back.
The door was still open.
At least that calmed me a little.
I walked toward the chair.
The phone lit up when I was a few steps away.
Its screen displayed only one sentence.
YOU'VE ARRIVED.
I stared at the words for a long time.
Then the screen changed.
A single photo appeared.
My chest tightened.
The photo showed a room.
The exact same room where I was standing now.
But there was someone in the photo.
A woman.
Her back was to me.
She stood right in front of the door.
I zoomed in on the photo.
My hand began to tremble.
There was a date in the bottom-right corner.
Yesterday's date.
I immediately remembered the woman I'd seen the night before.
The woman standing at the end of the hall.
The woman whose voice was exactly the same as the voice from behind the door.
I took a step back.
“Who are you, really?”
The phone suddenly vibrated.
A message came in.
DON'T TRY TO REMEMBER.
I stared at the screen.
A second message appeared.
YOUR MEMORIES AREN'T YOURS.
I felt a throbbing in my head.
For a split second, something surfaced in my mind.
A hallway.
The sound of footsteps.
Crying.
Then someone's voice calling my name.
I closed my eyes.
“Stop…”
The image grew clearer.
I saw myself.
Standing in the same hallway.
But this time, I wasn't alone.
There was a woman standing in front of me.
Her face was still indistinct.
But I recognized the uniform she was wearing.
My school uniform.
The woman looked at me through her tears.
Then she said something.
I couldn't hear what she was saying.
Everything went dark again.
I opened my eyes, gasping for breath.
The phone on the chair had gone dark.
But the woman's voice could be heard again.
This time, it wasn't coming from behind the door.
It was right behind me.
“You're starting to remember.”
My body went rigid.
I didn't dare turn around.
“Don't be afraid.”
Her voice was so close.
“But don't trust me, either.”
I closed my eyes.
One second.
Two seconds.
Then I worked up the courage to turn around.
There was no one there.
Only the door.
But on the surface of the door, there was now writing that hadn't been there before.
The words looked as though they had been written with something dark.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM, FIND YOUR OWN NAME.
I moved closer.
Beneath the sentence was a name.
My name.
But one thing made me feel as though the blood had stopped flowing through my veins.
The name had been crossed out.
Once.
Twice.
Again and again.
As if someone was trying to erase my existence from this place.
I touched the writing.
And when my fingertip touched the last letter, all the lights in the room came on at once.
I flinched.
A large mirror now stood before me.
I hadn't noticed it until then.
I stared at my reflection.
My face.
My hair.
My uniform.
Everything was the same.
But the reflection didn't move.
I froze.
My reflection stared straight at me.
Then it slowly smiled.
A smile that wasn't mine at all.
The reflection's lips moved.
Without making a sound.
But I could read the words.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR A LONG TIME.
I backed away.
The mirror suddenly cracked.
One line.
Then two.
Then dozens of lines spread across its surface.
And from behind the cracks came the same woman's voice.
“Now it's your turn to remember everything.”
I covered my ears.
But the voice didn't disappear.
Because it was no longer coming from the room.
It was coming from inside my own head.
And for the first time, I realized something far more terrifying than the existence of that mysterious woman.
Maybe all this time, I hadn't been looking for answers.
Maybe…
I had been trying to forget something I should never have forgotten.