At an ordinary town in an unknown place is a teenage girl name Feria with her twin Venus. Feria and Venus are discussing together whether or not they should go into the newly open Memory Department Store. The two girls were left deep in thought for a while.
'Should I go in there? If they can really erase memory we don't needed and replace it with a new one, maybe I should try, maybe.' Feria thought. At the same moment Venus is also trying to make a decision.
'This might be dangerous, like the warning said about us going mental from the process which we saw in the television this morning while eating breakfast. But I don't see why we shouldn't try.'
“Venus, can we go in please, I'm sick of our life these days, we have no rights, rules are so strict, and I can't get the negative memory out of me!” said Feria. “I guess it shouldn't hurt trying since I can't forget what my ex-boyfriend had done to me either.” Venus replied. “Then what are we waiting for!!” Feria shouted in joy.
Inside the Memory Department Store were many separated rooms, hundreds of them, a room per person. The two twins noticed that everything was to be self-serviced and after we finished what we were doing, a receipt is given to go pay at the cashier. In each room, there will be the cost of each thing so people can keep track of how much they spend. Feria and Venus decided to go to the empty room next to another.
'This gotta be fun!' Feria thought. She decided to take a look around the room until she noticed the instruction on how to use the “Recollection Machine”. Her first thought was to remove all her remembrance about everything related to the town she is at now and replace it with the memory of someplace else, a place with no rules and only freedom.
She thought back to her life routine. Every single day, every morning, her mom would come in the room at 5am. It was painful. Everyday she isn't able to have full rest; At exactly 5am she will be interrupted by her mom.She doesn't understand why her mom keeps telling her to do thing she doesn't want to especially working on chores early in the morning. At school isn't much different, school starts 9am and ends at 5pm. Most of her time between the time spent at school and at home is at the library, not from her decision but her mom makes her go to special learning programs. Once in a long while, there will be those holidays where she can go where ever she wants.... like today.
After thinking back to what happened, Feria starts the 'Recollection Machine' and type down the information she wanted to remove and replace. During the process, Feria's vision went all white. Whens image reappears, she saw a house looking quite old-fashioned. Beside the house one the left is a river, and the other side is the woods. She noticed the bird chirping while flying over her. Feria looks at the direction the bird is flying to. She was surprised to see a garden of flowers with different colors. She saw roses, tulips, lilies, and many more types of flowers. The sweet scent of flowers are everywhere in all directions. Feria touch one of the flowers and noticed how soft it is, but quickly removed her hand away scared that her touch might make the flower rotten. But then she noticed that the flowers are stronger than they seems and the longer she looks at it, the more she felt relief. At that moment, she knew this the place she always wanted to be at, her home. A place with freedom and nothing else exist except for peaceful nature.
Feria was really happy, her eyes still tightly shut. She thought this was the best thing she wanted and decided the right thing. But she made a wrong decision. After finishing the process of removing and replacing her memory, she has forgotten the reason she was here, at this place called 'The Memory Department Store'. The only thing she knew is to find her way back home, to the place with no rules and only freedom. The place she just saw in her visionary state.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
In the room next door is Venus. The only thing she is concerned about is to completely forget about her ex-boyfriend, Alex. But right before she began the process, she noticed the warning sign about leaving part of our memory blank can have an long-term effect to us. So she decided to replace her memory with a memory of a group of friends loving to hang out together since during her whole life so far, the only person she is friends with is Alex and her sister Feria. She pressed the start button on the “Recollection Machine”.
Venus woke up, she looked around and saw a group of friends looking at her. She was wondering why they looked so worried. But only until one of them started talking. “Hey Venus, are you alright? You suddenly fainted.” a 19 year old boy with brown shoulder length hair mentioned. At first she was too stunned with his appearance, his good looks and green emerald eyes color looking in to her brown eyes makes her blushes. Suddenly a glimpse of memory reminded her of who he is, his name is Alan, a friend of hers. “I'm alright” Venus replied. She then recognized a girl with long blonde hair. Her sapphire color eyes told her there's something special even though she doesn't know what it is. She started to remember something about this beautiful girl, her name is Alice, she is Alan's girlfriend.
At first not all of her memories about them are clear. A younger girl around 15 years old named Tearna introduced herself as Alan's younger sister. She told Venus that when she fainted earlier her head hit the ground so maybe something happened to her brain making her not able to remember all of them yet. While hanging out with them for while, Venus decided to ask them a question about the two boy she still can't remember their names. “Are you two twins?” Venus asked. Her friends were full of laughter.
“I guess not all of your memory came back yet” one of the boy said. “Especially the common-sense parts” the other boy said while laughing. At that moment she remembered the two of them, Nabius and Solem the good looking identical twin. “Nabius! Solem!” Venus shouted in joy. “Is there something?” Nabius and Solem replied at the same moment. “I think her memory is back now!!” Tearna excitedly told everyone.
Once the process of replacing the memory ended, Venus woke up. She suddenly feels like something is missing and want to go see her friends again which are Alan, Tearna, Nabius, Alice and Solem. But in reality, she had never met them before.
When Venus left the room, she notice that Feria is missing and isn't in the room beside the room she went in. She thought she might have gone home first so she decided to phone her while she make her way home.
'Hey, who called me?' Feria thought. Feria picked up her phone and saw the name Venus. 'Who is Venus?' Feria keeping thinking repeatedly but answered the call anyway. “Who is this?” Feria asked. “It's me Venus, your twin sister Feria.” Venus answered. “Sorry, but I think you might have called the wrong person, I have no twin. Bye.” Feria replied. 'Maybe I should get a new number once I get home' Feria thought.
'How could this be? Feria forgot me? How could such a thing happen? Or is it the Recollection Machine?' Venus thought of various reasons to why Feria had changed and forgotten her, and her thought stopped at the Memory Department Store. “Oh no, Feria must have erased her memory about this place since before we went in, she said she wanted to get the bad memory out of her. How would I tell our parents now? Maybe I should go talk to Alan and Alice, they must know what to do.” said Venus.
After the visit to the Memory Department Store, the two twins never came back to the town again. Feria went on a journey to find a way back to her home from the memory she has (which in reality doesn't exist). While Venus went on a journey to reunite with her friends Alan, Tearna, Nabius, Alice and Solem (who in reality does not exist).