The monster lunged forward with a roar that shook Elise's entire bedroom.
Candles blew out.
Shadows stretched across the walls like living claws.
Elise screamed—her voice thin, terrified—while Aiden stood frozen, unable to see the nightmare towering over him.
Kian shouted, "BRO MOVE—IT'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU—"
Aiden looked around wildly. "Where?! What is?!"
"THAT!" Yuvan yelled.
"But I see nothing!"
"EXACTLY! THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" Dev snapped.
Aria stepped forward, heart pounding. The monster's body glitch-flickered, made of shadow, static, and something that felt heartbreakingly familiar—fear.
Rhea whispered, "Guys… look at its shape. It's not random."
They stared.
The monster's limbs twisted like broken fragments.
Its torso glitch ed between forms—sometimes a silhouette, sometimes a figure resembling a memory, sometimes a shadow of Elise herself.
The creature wasn't just fear.
It was every moment Elise tried to forget.
Every heartbreak.
Every panic.
Every nightmare.
Manifested.
Alive.
And hungry.
---
THE FIGHT EXPLODES
The monster swung its jagged limb toward Aria.
She dove aside just in time.
Kian grabbed a candlestick. "Weapons! We need weapons!"
"THIS IS A MEMORY!" Zoya screeched. "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?! THROW EMOTIONS AT IT?!"
Dev punched the creature. His fist went straight through the glitched shadow.
"Ow—okay yeah that was dumb—"
Ravi shouted, "We can't hit it physically! It's made of her mind!"
Aria's eyes widened.
She held up the glowing orb—the extracted memory the masked figure gave them.
"What if… we hit it emotionally?"
Yuvan blinked. "Bro what?"
"The monster is FEAR," Aria said. "So we fight it with MEMORY."
Rhea nodded urgently. "Fear can't survive where truth exists!"
Dev gasped. "So we're about to fight this thing with THERAPY?!"
"YES!" Aria yelled. "NOW MOVE!"
---
THE STRATEGY
Aria charged at the creature, holding the orb like a grenade of light.
The monster screeched, recoiling violently as if the memory burned it.
"Oh snap, it's working!" Kian shouted.
"YEAH BUT IT'S VERY ANGRY ABOUT IT!" Mira cried as the creature's claws slashed the air above her head.
The lights flickered.
The walls trembled.
Elise sobbed—hands clamped over her ears.
"Make it stop… make it stop…"
Aiden reached for her. "Elise, please—"
She flinched away as if his touch was fire.
"I don't know you…"
Aiden's heart shattered on his face.
Rhea whispered, "This is the moment she lost him."
"Then we fix it," Aria said.
---
THE MEMORY ORB
The monster roared and charged straight at Aiden.
"MOVE!" Kian shoved him aside.
But the creature didn't want Aiden.
It wanted Elise.
It wanted to devour her memory completely.
Aria sprinted across the room, leapt onto the monster's back, and slammed the glowing orb into its glitching head.
FLASH!!
The room exploded with light.
Warm.
Soft.
Golden.
Like a memory coming to life.
The monster screeched, thrashing violently.
Its shadowy limbs melted.
Its body shrank.
Its glitching slowed.
And suddenly—
The room transformed.
---
MEMORY OVERLAY – THE TRUTH REVEALED
Elise's surroundings dissolved into a new moment:
Aiden and Elise—
together.
Happy.
Laughing.
In the castle garden under moonlight.
Her hand in his.
His forehead against hers.
A memory she had forgotten.
The monster screamed as the golden memory light burned through its darkness.
"This… this memory—" Mira gasped. "It's one she lost."
Zoya sniffled. "IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL I'M EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED."
Aiden watched the vision with trembling lips.
"Elise… you remembered this night. You did. You loved me."
But Elise in the present still sat trembling, unaware.
Ravi shouted, "We need to push the memory INTO her!"
"How?!" Yuvan cried.
Aria held the glowing orb to Elise's chest.
"Elise!" she shouted. "Let yourself remember!"
The monster shrieked—desperate—charging for Elise.
Dev blocked it.
Kian swung a broken bedpost.
Mira and Zoya threw blankets.
Yuvan threw himself (unintentionally).
Aria pressed harder.
"Remember him, Elise! Remember LOVE!"
The orb cracked—
light pouring out like liquid sunshine.
And then—
BOOM!
Everything froze.
---
THE HEART RETURNS
The monster dissolved—bit by bit—into tiny golden particles.
Floating upward.
Silently.
Peacefully.
The golden memory sank into Elise's chest like breathing warmth.
Her eyes fluttered.
Her breaths slowed.
And then—
She looked up.
Directly at Aiden.
Her voice shook weakly:
"…Aiden?"
Aiden fell to his knees, tears streaming.
"Elise."
She reached for him.
"I… I remember you…"
Aiden pulled her into his arms, sobbing into her hair.
The room shimmered.
The storm faded.
Light filled the space.
The scroll unfolded mid-air:
ROUND 1 COMPLETE
Memory Restored
Fear Defeated
Love Recovered
The eight friends collapsed in relief.
Kian flopped onto the floor. "I almost died doing EMOTIONAL LABOR."
Yuvan wheezed, "I faced a monster made of trauma. I deserve snacks for this."
Dev lay on his back. "We lived. Therapy arc successful."
Zoya cried into Mira's shoulder. "THEY'RE SO CUTE—IT'S UNHEALTHY."
Ravi stared at Elise, awestruck. "One round down… twenty-four left."
Aria exhaled deeply.
But then—
Everything glitched.
The room shook.
Aiden and Elise froze mid-motion.
The castle dissolved.
A voice echoed—
Not the game's voice.
Not the masked figure.
Something older.
Deeper.
"Round 2: Loading…"
The floor broke apart—
and they began falling again.
But this time…
They weren't alone.
Because in the corner of the glitching room—
watching them with glowing red eyes—
stood a figure none of them noticed earlier.
A child.
Smiling.
And whispering:
"Don't let the next story eat you alive."
Before they could scream—
They fell.
Into Story Two.
---