Chapter 8: The Wall of the Forgotten

Two days later, they had found a lead.

Kelvin, insomniac and haunted by dreams of white hospitals tainted with screams, had spent hours digging through forgotten databases, outdated registries, and old city blueprints.

And finally, a connection.

An old military psychiatric facility, abandoned for fifteen years: Klinik-13, located on the outskirts, buried in the woods, hidden from sight. K-13.

Its full name appeared on no modern map. It was only mentioned in declassified documents, handwritten notes. The clinic had apparently shut down abruptly after a series of "internal incidents." No explanations. No declared survivors.

An administrative black hole.

And that was precisely where they needed to go.

The journey to K-13 was long. The boy — now called Echo (as his memories returned only in fragments) — walked silently, always alert. He seemed to sense things the others couldn't. As if his senses had been altered by the shadow that had broken him.

The forest grew denser as they approached.

And finally, at the bend of a faded path, it appeared.

A grey building, eroded by time. Four stories, shattered windows, graffiti-covered walls. The air felt different here: heavy. Charged. As if each step entered a past that refused to be forgotten.

On the façade, in letters faded by rust and wind:

KLINIK-13 — Experimental Institute of Cognitive Defragmentation.

"Cognitive defragmentation…?" Lila read aloud.

Kelvin nodded.

"Mind experiments. Memory rewriting. Sensory isolation. This is where they started playing with the shadows of the mind."

They entered.

The smell was a mix of mold, dust… and mental ashes.

Echo shivered. He didn't speak, but his gaze clung to the walls. He recognized them.

They passed through a crumbling hallway, tiled with broken ceramic and words scrawled in red letters:

"WE WEREN'T CRAZY."

"THEY UNLEASHED THE FORMS."

"THE SHADOW WATCHES THROUGH THE EYE OF THE VOID."

"K13 = SACRIFICE."

Further in, they found the Wall of the Forgotten.

A square room, completely covered in black-and-white photographs. Faces of men, women, children — all wearing the same expression: emptiness, resignation… or terror.

Each had a number. Echo stepped toward the wall and reached out to a photo.

"That's me."

Kelvin and Lila exchanged a frozen glance.

"Number 73…" Lila murmured.

"This wall… they were patients. Or rather, test subjects," Kelvin whispered.

Echo stepped back, hands trembling. Suddenly, he collapsed to his knees.

And the room fell. Not into silence… but into echo.

Shrill laughter rang against the walls. The photographs began to tremble. And from a dark corner of the room, something stirred.

A figure materialized.

Not like the Thinking Beast they had fought before.

This one wore a white mask. A human mask, cracked. Its body was made of hundreds of overlapping shadow fragments. Voices whispered from within, like a crowd murmuring in unison.

It raised a clawed hand and spoke in a multi-toned whisper:

"I am the Archivist. Keeper of erased memories.

You have entered the cradle. The cradle of lies."

Kelvin tried to step back, but his legs wouldn't move. Lila clenched her fists.

"What is that? Another Thinking Beast?"

"No," Echo replied, his voice clearer than ever. "It's older. It's… a threshold guardian."

"A guardian of what?" Kelvin whispered.

The Archivist stepped forward. Each footstep bent reality around him.

"The threshold of rupture.

Those who dare remember must first survive themselves."

Thenit reached out a hand toward Kelvin.

— You. The link is within you. You carry the seed of the catalyst.

— What are you talking about?! shouted Kelvin.

But already, a mental wave crashed over him.

He relived his childhood. Panic attacks. Diagnoses. Pills.

Then a memory he had never seen: a corridor in Klinik-13. A room. And himself, very young... screaming in a cell.

Kelvin dropped to his knees, tears in his eyes.

— I... was here...

Lila tried to pull him back, but the room seemed to close in on them.

Echo, eyes rolled back, suddenly screamed:

— NO!

A black light burst from him. A brutal wave struck the Archivist, forcing him to retreat.

— Leave them! shouted Echo. I have returned... to break the chain!

A moment of silence.

The Archivist froze, then vanished in black smoke, whispering:

— Then come, bearers of memory. The truth will not save you. It will destroy you...

They were alive. But changed.

Kelvin now knew he had a direct link to this place. Maybe he was even born there. Echo possessed a power he didn't yet understand. And Lila... was beginning to hear a voice in her nightmares.

A familiar voice.