Chapter 14: The Locked Mind

The door you escaped through shuts behind you with a metallic clang.

The silence is so complete, you can hear your heartbeat.

Then you notice: you're in a library.

Bookshelves stretch up impossibly high, vanishing into darkness above. Old books, their pages yellowed and whisper-thin, line the walls. A thick scent of dust, ink, and something faintly metallic hangs in the air.

You take a step, and suddenly the shelves begin to spin. Whirring. Rearranging themselves.

They stop abruptly.

In front of you: a single podium.

A book rests on it.

It's titled: "Things You Chose to Forget."

You open it.

The pages are blank.

Until your fingers brush one—and writing begins to appear.

Your handwriting.

The Fourteenth Memory:

You're ten.

You're hiding under a staircase, knees pulled to your chest.

Your mother is crying upstairs. Your father is yelling. You press your ears closed.

But you remember what happened next.

You left.

You didn't comfort her. You didn't help.

You ran.

And forgot.

The page turns on its own.

A new scene.

You're fifteen.

A friend confessed a secret. Trusted you.

You used it against them.

You laughed when they cried.

You forgot that too.

The book closes by itself.

A voice echoes from above:

"You cannot move forward until you unlock what you buried."

You spin around.

Four locked doors have appeared, each a different color:

Red

Blue

Black

White

Each one labeled with a word:

Guilt

Denial

Rage

Fear

You can open only one.

The Fourteenth Choice:

Do you:

A) Open Red: Rage – You're tired of hiding what burns inside.

B) Open Blue: Denial – You need to know what you refused to see.

C) Open Black: Guilt – You're ready to face the weight you carry.

D) Open White: Fear – Only by facing it can you be free.

As you reach for a doorknob, the floor beneath you pulses.

A cold wind howls between the bookshelves.

One of the shelves shifts—revealing a mirror behind it.

In the mirror is a version of you.

Bleeding.

Smiling.

Quiz 14:

Which door do you avoid the most in your own mind?

A) Rage

B) Denial

C) Guilt

D) Fear

As you push the chosen door open, a voice whispers:

"We remember... even when you don't."

The library vanishes.

Darkness returns.

And you fall.

Endlessly.

End of Chapter 14