The rain had stopped a few hours ago, and the streets of Novelle were wet. Obviously, there was rain. Helen walked alone in the streets, clearly worried. She normally walked with Lena, her best friend from childhood. She didn't see Lena today at school, and no one saw or bothered her. She didn't expect them to, but her friends didn't seem to notice. The strange thing was that the teacher didn't call her name in attendance; she assumed she had skipped it.
Lena has never missed school before. She always teased her about it. What scared her was the fact that her line was saying it doesn't exist each time she tried ringing her number.
She stopped in front of Lena's apartment, ringing her doorbell. Lena's dad opened the door seconds later. "Hey Helen," he greeted with a smile. "How are you doing?"
"Good evening, I was wondering if Lena was around."
" Who's Lena?" he asked,, confused.
"Your daughter," she whispered, confused too
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, my wife and I don't have kids." Helen looked at his face; she could tell he was serious.
Helen didn't know how long she stared into space. " Are you okay?" he asked, his eyes filled with concern.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Sir,," she quickly apologized and ran off.
Something wasn't right, and she was determined to find out.
Days passed by, and Helen had started noticing strange disappearances in the City. The weird thing was that no one seems to notice. One of her classmates, James, was missing, and the strange thing was that someone was using his locker like he never existed. All of his things were gone, like they never existed in the first place. No one wants to believe her; her father thinks she's overreacting.
She was beginning to think she was crazy until she went to her locker to grab her books, and she found a guy leaning against her locker. "Lena Orla," he whispered,, looking around.
Helen's heart began to race faster. " Meet me in the cafeteria after school."
She watched him leave, glad she wasn't the only one.
**
Helen couldn't wait until the class was over. She marched her way to the cafeteria, where she found the guy from earlier sitting on a bench waiting for her.
"Hi, I'm Kai." he stood up immediately when he saw her.
"Helen," she introduced,, even though she knew he already knew that.
"How do you know about Lena? No one seems to remember," she asked the question that had been troubling her all day.
"I just do, and you do as well, which makes you one of us."
"One of whom?"
He hesitated a bit, then motioned for her to follow him. "I'll show you."
Helen was a bit hesitant, but her curiosity was at its peak now. They walked out of school, they walked for like an hour, crossed the railway, which led them to an abandoned maintenance tunnel, which filled the air with a heavy smell of metal and oil.
There was a door at the end of the tunnel. Kai unlocked the door, and they entered. Helen marveled at what they saw. It was like another world entirely. There were a lot of people. Adults. Teenagers and children.
"This is The Hollow," Kai said. "The ones who remember."
Helen stared in amazement.
"These people - every one of them lost someone they remember. We're the few that the system didn't rewrite. Some kids here lost someone here, and we take care of them."
Helen didn't understand. 'System' 'Rewrite'
Those who disappeared are not dead. Just erased. Taken by the overseers.
"Who are they?" she whispered.
People greeted them as they walked by.
"A secret council that controls Novelle. They erase memories. And the people they take are used for something."
"What?"
"They're reprogrammed to serve," he said. "To protect a lie. A system older than us all. And if we don't stop them, we'll all forget the truth too."
"How did you know all this?"
"My brother used to work there till he found out their plan, he tried exposing it till he just disappeared, people forgot him, but I remember."